Experts doubt need for bank of information about terrorists in Russia

The initiative of the Russian authorities on creation of a bank of information on terrorists and extremists is not practical, and all the more, law enforcers already use a system of preventive registration, which is also ineffective and violates the rights of residents of Northern Caucasus. This opinion was expressed by the experts interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot".

On June 28, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced the creation in the country of the federal information system of biometric register and operational-search data.

According to Irina Gordienko, a reporter of the newspaper "Novaya Gazeta", the system will not work in Russia. The journalist has noted that law enforcers often "reveal radically-minded people only by appearance, while real militants are not included in the lists of extremists."

In fact, the system, which creation was announced by Vladimir Putin, already exists for a long time. This was stated by Alexander Cherkasov, Chairman of the Board of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial". Meanwhile, the persons included in those lists, "often groundlessly," are being subjected to pressure from the state.

"For example, they cannot get banking cards, that is, they cannot pay taxes and receive wages," Alexander Cherkasov has noted.

In addition to the system of preventive registration at the police, the law enforcement bodies can use the lists, which are regularly published by the "Rosfinmonitoring" (Federal Financial Monitoring Service). This was noted by Svetlana Gannushkina, a member of the Board of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", Chair of the "Civic Assistance Committee".

Svetlana Gannushkina believes that the system "will not be effective, since the lists fail to include real extremists." Law enforcers "often make mistakes or do their job carelessly."

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.