Daesh retains destructive capabilities, says Putin

Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday that despite the defeat of Daesh in Syria, the organisation still retains great destructive power as well as the ability to change its tactics quickly and attack countries around the world.

“It is necessary to think together about new forms of multilateral cooperation that would allow us to consolidate the gains made in the fight against terrorism and to prevent the further spread of this threat,” Putin told participants at the Moscow Conference on International Security..

Russian Defence Minister Sergey Shoygu added that the US-led coalition could not eliminate “terrorists in Syria”, and said that if efforts were united with Russia, the task would have finished a long time ago and with fewer losses.

“Some countries are trying to push for a new arms race and expand their military presence on the border with Russia” he claimed. The US missile shield in Europe, insisted Shoygu, fuels an arms race and represent a destabilising factor.

Turkey: 245 Daesh suspects arrested in March

He pointed out that NATO has deployed 10,000 troops in the Baltic countries and Poland, with offensive weapons, which suggests that the Organisation is not interested in serious dialogue with Moscow.

Meanwhile, Russia’s foreign intelligence agency chief Sergei Naryshkin said on Wednesday that the US actions toward Russia makes it possible to talk about the return of the Cold War, Washington, he claimed, is fixated with fighting something that does not exist, called the Russian threat.

Naryshkin added that the increasing role of some countries such as Russia, China, India, Brazil and South Africa on the international scene does not appeal to the Western powers. “The United States and part of Europe have shown that they are not prepared for such changes and are resorting to old confrontation methods such as those of the Cold War.”