Extremist organizations grow active in CSTO member states

MOSCOW,  Nov 25 (Interfax-AVN).  The number of extremist organizations has grown on the post-Soviet space, including Russia, Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary General Nikolai Bordyuzha told reporters in Moscow on Thursday.

"The growth and intensified activity of extremist organizations on the territories of the CSTO member states is one of our main problems. This is confirmed with events in Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and, by the way, in the Russian Federation," Bordyuzha said.

He also pointed to the situation in Afghanistan as a key security problem.

"That is true, primarily, from the point of view of instability. Secondly, there are camps training militants who penetrate into the territories of our states," Bordyuzha said.

The camps in the so-called 'gray zone' "train a rather large number of citizens of the CSTO member states," he said. "We realize that they will come back on certain missions and with certain skills."

Afghanistan is a key center of Islamic fundamentalism, Bordyuzha said.

There is a drug threat as well. "It does not matter what people die of - conventional arms, weapons of mass destruction or drugs. Plenty of people, including those in Russia, have become addicted to drugs because of the active drug trafficking," he said.