Ushakov: Putin and Obama agreed on active contacts between security service leaders
MOSCOW. April 29 (Interfax) - President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Barack Obama agreed on most active contacts between the leaderships of the special services of the two countries.
"A practical agreement was reached on most active contacts along the lines of the leadership of the special services," Putin's aide Yury Ushakov said to reporters.
He added that the special services will also actively cooperate.
Putin and Obama had a telephone conversation on Monday. They mainly "discussed the intensification of interaction along the lines of special services in the context of the recent Boston bombing," the aide said.
He said Obama thanked Putin for information provided earlier which proved very useful.
Meanwhile, presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov added that Russia could not produce valuable intelligence information to its U.S. partners because the Tsarnaev brothers did not live in Russia.
"Nevertheless, cooperation along the lines of special services in combating terrorism continues and it has noticeably intensified in the past few days. This aroused praise from Putin and Obama and their satisfaction," Peskov said.
He added that the presidents drew special attention to the fact that the expansion of cooperation "in such a delicate sphere as security and counterterrorism on the whole promotes mutual confidence in bilateral relations."
The Monday telephone conversation of the two presidents was initiated by the U.S. side.
Three people were killed and over 180 were injured in the terrorist attack that occurred at the Boston marathon. The investigators suspect brothers Tamerlan Tsarnaev and Dzhokhar Tsarnaev of carrying out the attack. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was killed during a shootout with the police, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev was arrested.
Some foreign media reports assumed that the Tsarnaev brothers could be linked with extremists led by North Caucasian militant Doku Umarov, but an Interfax source in law enforcement said there is no reliable information to this end.
According to CBS, Dzhokhar received U.S. citizenship in 2012 the same as his parents. Tamerlan was reportedly collecting documents to receive U.S. citizenship.
The Associated Press quoting its own source reported that in 2012 Tamerlan left the United States for Russia for half a year.
The Los Angeles Times says he had a Russian passport.
BBC quoting its sources in the U.S. government and law enforcement reported that in 2011 the FBI interrogated Tamerlan and his relatives at the request of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB).
FSB suspected that he had joined radical Islamists and intended to travel to Russia, a source on the U.S. government told news agencies.
