Presentation of seminar on anti-terrorist partnership in London

September 14

The Russian Embassy in London presented a seminar on consolidating anti-terrorist partnership between the government and business Thursday.

Russian Ambassador to London Yuri Fedotov said that the initiative of public-private partnership in countering terrorism belongs to Russia and was made at the G8 summit in St. Petersburg.

Director of the Russian Foreign Ministry department on new challenges and threats Alexander Zmeyevsky said the seminar would take place in Moscow on October 11 with the participation of official representatives of the G8 countries and a number of private companies from Russia, among them Gazprom, Norilsky Nikel, Aeroflot and LUKoil, and from other countries – British Telecom, Citigroup, etc.

Zmeyevsky said the main goal of the seminar is to “pool the efforts of the government and private sector, and establish a mutually advantageous partnership in countering terrorism.” “We are ready to help business,” he said.

Zmeyevsky went on to say that one of concrete proposals on partnership was “to establish an international framework under the G8 aegis for setting up insurance mechanisms against terrorist risks.

“This is predominantly a compensation framework,” he specified, and “we expect businesses to make new specific proposals, because we want them to come from the private sector in a democratic manner, rather than from the government.”

The main topics discussed at the forthcoming Moscow seminar will be protection of transborder shipments against the threat of terrorism, cyber terrorism and safeguards for the energy infrastructure.

Director of the International East-West Institute for Innovations Policy Greg Austin pointed out that the idea of private-public partnership has long been discussed, but Russia has done the right thing by outlining its global dimensions today.

At the same time, it is important to understand that different sectors of private business in different regions determine priority spheres where this initiative primarily applies, he said.

In his opinion, fighting cyber terrorism may become one of the most important directions in counterterrorism. In the near future, terrorists may emerge from universities rather than Arabian sands, he explained.