Speaking at the Journalists From Muslim Countries Against Extremism forum, Veniamin Popov, coordinator of the Russia - Islamic World strategic vision group, emphasized that the cause of fighting extremism and dismantling its underlying ideology is "of paramount importance".
I would like to also contribute briefly , indeed we do a lot of prevention work and Russia’s General Prosecutor’s Office just last year shut down over thousand various of web-sites or online resources that preached radical or extremist ideas just over one year. But still this remains an issue, because as you know, even though of late the al-Nusra Front and the Islamic state have suffered heavy blows from the counter-terrorist coalitions, they have somewhat rolled back in their positions.
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But still we are saying that they are trying today to verify their activities these days, they are shifting their focus toward Afghanistan in their operations, toward Yemen, toward certain areas in Africa. This is a serious threat.
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The essence is that countering extremism and actually defeating the ideological bases of extremism are radical movements. It still remains a very important task for us.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"