Moscow believes new terror attacks possible in Europe due to migrant crisis - Russian Foreign Ministry
MOSCOW. July 26 (Interfax) - New terror attacks are possible in Europe because of the migrant crisis, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"The threat of a new outbreak of terrorist activity of ISIL [banned in Russia] in Western countries, where Islamists are sending their emissaries amongst the refugee flow, has been growing against the backdrop of the escalated migrant crisis," Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Oleg Syromolotov told Interfax in an interview.
"Chaotic processes in the Middle East are fraught with certain risks to the national security of our country," he said.
"Thousands of citizens from the territory of the former Soviet Union have joined ISIL," the deputy minister said.
Moscow regrets that "notorious 'double standards' and the politicized practice dividing terrorists and extremists into 'bad' and 'not so bad' persists in international anti-terrorism cooperation," Syromolotov said.
"What is more, it allows for the use of terrorist groups in geopolitical schemes aimed at interfering in internal affairs of countries, to destabilize and to replace 'unwelcome' regimes," the deputy minister said.
"This shortsighted and imprudent course pursuing selfish interests to the detriment of the common cause of the anti-terrorism fight is a reason for dangerous development of crises in the Middle East and North Africa, which has led to the unprecedented activation of ISIL, Jabhat al-Nusra [both of which are banned in Russia] and other groups," he said.