West-Russia anti-Daesh coordination possible: Journalist

Press TV has conducted an interview with Fred Weir, a journalist and political commentator from Moscow, to get his take on Russian and Western fight against the Takfiri terrorists.

The following is a rough transcription of the interview.

Press TV: Please talk to us about the repercussions and ramifications of this new order by Russian President Vladimir Putin setting up an interim department, commission to prevent the financing of terrorists.

Weir: Well, what you describe there is a commission that will scrutinize the banking system and the financial system for any unusual money transfers/movements.

It is only part of this major escalation that’s been going on. Russia is being transformed into more of a security state as you’ve just described this is happening in Paris, because Russians experienced and acknowledged that they lost 224 people in a plane bombing.

So, this is a really critical moment in which they’re stepping up on all fronts, for example, just in past few days Russia has used strategic bombers in Syria. Those big Cold War era bombers meant to be used in a nuclear confrontation with the United States. The Tu-95 that giant plane and Tu-160, they’ve used them in bombing raids on Syria.

They fly them from bases in central Russia to Syria and back. They’ve used Cruise missiles again. They apparently had a massive bombing raid on the ISIS (Daesh) capital of Raqqa yesterday.  

Putin had a meeting with his security council yesterday, in which he clearly indicated that Russia will start using special forces to track down the perpetrators.

So, this is like an across the board escalation of the Russian reaction in the Russian war on ISIS. And at the same, it does seem that the Western powers and Russia are moving closer gradually toward some kind of agreement on at least coordinating their efforts. So, really major things are on the way.

Press TV: And also if you recall recent comments made by Russia’s Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, he suggested that Moscow and West form a united front against terrorists since terrorism will be a global challenge. Talk to us about those comments and how you believe the United States might respond to such a request.

Weir: Well, this has been Russia’s message frankly for a long time. Russia has been a victim of repeated serial terror attacks mostly emanating from Chechnya, but since 1999 or so they have been jihadist that is their Islamist attacks designed to kill civilians for terrorist purposes.

And Russian message all along has been: “We are facing a global challenge. This is a common enemy, it’s not Chechen separatists anymore, it’s global jihadists that we’re fighting and we should all cooperate.”

So, in the wake of the Paris attacks, they have renewed this message. And it does seem like in the West they’re more inclined to state that on board now.

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