Today, on July 1, a lecture on the topic "Anti-terrorist security and security of an object vulnerable to terrorism" was held in the conference hall of the Nur-Sultan Olympic Training Center. The meeting was attended by the heads of services and employees of the Nur-Sultan PSC. 

The General Director of KMB KZ Eskaliev Kairbolat Miratovich made a report on international terrorism and its impact on Kazakhstan to the staff of the Center. 

To date, one of the urgent problems in both national and international criminal law is international terrorism. Originating in the period of the formation of States, terrorism is still an integral part of the criminal world. The world community is actively fighting terrorism, but these methods are not effective, as the growth of terrorism is increasing every day. Kazakhstan is no exception. Until this year, Kazakhstan considered the problem of terrorism only as an external threat, more precisely as a potential danger, but not a real one. But first I would like to focus on international terrorism, as it is inextricably linked with the events that took place in Kazakhstan.

In the international legal aspect, international terrorism is defined as "a set of internationally socially dangerous acts entailing the senseless death of people, violating the normal diplomatic activities of States and the implementation of international contacts and meetings, as well as transport links between States"[1, p.7].

International terrorism today is represented by powerful structures with modern means and technologies. This is due to a wide range of forms of its manifestation: from individual actions to conducting sabotage and terrorist wars. International terrorism today is becoming a geopolitical challenge to the entire world community.

The main objects of the impact of international terrorism are the internal and external security of a country or group of States, the constitutional foundations of their social and state system, and the main goals are the disorganization of public administration, causing significant economic damage and destabilization of the military-political situation.

The terrorist attacks in the United States on September 11, 2001 are nothing more than a global provocation that fits into the concept of crisis management. But if earlier this process was controlled by states and their associations, which are forced to obey the norms of international law and world public opinion, now we are witnessing an attempt to interfere in world politics by powerful non-governmental structures that do not obey generally accepted rules and norms operating outside the framework of the world community. If the world community does not understand the seriousness of the threat and does not take effective steps to eradicate international terrorism, the world will enter a new era – the era of terrorist wars.

At present, the trend towards sharp polarization is beginning to manifest itself in the balance of power in the world. Today, the CIS states, due to their geopolitical position, have found themselves at the forefront of the fight against international terrorism. This is clearly confirmed by the events in the North Caucasus and the Central Asian region. The situation may become much more complicated due to the collapse of the extremists' far-reaching plans in the North Caucasus and the concentration of the main forces of the "jihad" in the Central Asian direction. And these are not "virtual scenarios", but quite concrete plans for a radical "redrawing" of the political map of the whole region.

It would be too naive to believe that the terrorists' plans will be limited to one single State. The metastases of extremism have already penetrated into many of our countries. And if he manages to destabilize the situation in any of the Central Asian states, no borders will stop the "chain reaction". The realization of their goals by the forces of international terrorism and religious extremism can lead to a radical change in the geopolitical situation in Central Asia with unpredictable consequences. It is not just about maintaining strategic stability in the region, but about the future of our peoples and States.

Apparently, the main directions of solving existing problems should be:

• consolidation of the efforts of all CIS countries in the fight against terrorism in order to jointly resist the manifestations of international terrorism in the CIS space, preserve the territorial integrity of States and successfully counteract any attempts of international interference under far-fetched pretexts;
• development of the regulatory and contractual framework for anti-terrorist activities;
• unification of national legislation in this area;
• formation of a system of mutual information in the interests of an adequate response to manifestations of terrorism;
• working out the system and methods of joint planning of anti-terrorist actions and preparation of allocated forces and means;
• development of models of complex counter-terrorism operations carried out by the decision of the Council of Heads of CIS member States.

I focus only on some geopolitical, international legal and military-strategic aspects of the implementation of such a multifaceted task, I believe that the theoretical provisions and practical recommendations on the organization of the fight against international terrorism, as well as the unique combat experience gained by such an expensive valuable one, will serve as a foundation for further improving the interaction of the Commonwealth states in the interests of ensuring strategic stability in the CIS space.

And now let's consider the problem of terrorism in Kazakhstan.

Terrorism has never been regarded in Kazakhstan as a real threat, but rather belonged more to the category of potential dangers. Accordingly, the national security system was more focused on preventing and preventing other threats – interethnic conflicts, drug trafficking, economic threats, corruption. The situation changed in 2011.

At the expert level, the problem of terrorism was also not considered separately for Kazakhstan, but was discussed only in the context of the general situation in Central Asia (especially actively after the terrorist attack in Tashkent in February 1999, as well as the Batken events of 1999-2000 in southern Kyrgyzstan) [2].

Therefore, terrorism was perceived in Kazakhstan mainly as an external threat, as a danger that could be introduced from the outside. Accordingly, its prevention was expressed in such measures as, for example, improving the system of protection of the state border, tightening migration legislation, etc.

Nevertheless, considerable work has been done in Kazakhstan to create and improve the legislative framework for the detection and suppression of terrorist and extremist activities. In July 1999, the Law "On Combating Terrorism" was adopted, which defined the legal and organizational basis for combating terrorism in the republic, the procedure for the activities of State bodies and organizations, regardless of ownership, as well as the rights, obligations and guarantees of citizens in connection with the implementation of the fight against terrorism[3].

That is, in general, terrorism was considered a distant and somewhat transparent threat on the public agenda until recently.

However, the events of last year (in June 2010 – a massive and well-organized escape from a strict regime colony in the Mangystau region of prisoners who were allegedly members of a religious extremist organization, as well as the fact that, according to an unofficial version, some of the escapees committed self-detonation; a whole series of detentions and liquidations on the territory of Russia of citizens of Kazakhstan suspected of carrying out terrorist activities in the North Caucasus), as well as the beginning of this year (the April special operation of the elite unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs "Sunkar" against persons who allegedly belonged to an extremist group, during which two suspects were killed and 11 fighters of "Sunkar" were injured; new cases of participation in terrorist attacks on the territory of the Russian Federation of immigrants from Kazakhstan; self-detonation on May 17 in the building of the DKNB in the Aktobe region of Rakhimzhan Makatov, who, according to some reports, was a member of a religious extremist organization; the explosion of a car on May 24 at the building of the temporary detention center of the Astana DKNB, as a result of which two people in the car were killed on the spot; the murder of two policemen of the Temir district police department on July 1 in the village of Shubarshi in the Temir district of the Aktobe region, which, according to media reports, was allegedly carried out by members of a religious extremist organization) caused a wide public outcry and provoked some tension in society. Which, in turn, is reinforced by the lack of a clear system of timely and competent information response on the part of the state[4].

It is no coincidence that even the so-called "telephone terrorism", which was previously on the periphery of public attention, is now more acutely and sensitively perceived by Kazakhstanis.

Thus, regardless of how the explosions in Aktobe and Astana will be qualified, as well as regardless of who and what is behind these events, it is necessary, unfortunately, to recognize the trend of a steady increase in the threat of terrorism in our country.

The number of Kazakhstanis being brought to criminal responsibility for committing crimes related to extremism and terrorist activities already on the territory of our country is growing. So, in particular, in 2008-2009, according to official data, 7 terrorist attacks were prevented in the country. Therefore, the problem of terrorism, which once seemed distant and virtual to us, is now becoming a direct threat to national security.

In fact, today the state faces a new challenge. And this challenge is quite serious, since the increase in the threat of terrorism is directly proportional to the devaluation of the fundamental ideology of the existing course – stability.

Many experts immediately noticed that the explosions in Aktobe and Astana took place in the buildings of the KNB, and the "Shubarsh" events are connected with the murder of policemen. Of course, it is difficult to judge any connection and regularity based on only a few facts. So far, experts are operating only with indirect evidence, in particular, the short interval between the events and the identity of the targets of the attacks.

Comparing the facts, it can be concluded that attacks on law enforcement agencies have acquired the character of a trend. But the main question is whether any organization operating directly on the territory of Kazakhstan is behind these actions?

It should be noted here that, unlike similar cases in other countries, after the events in Aktobe, Astana and Shubarshi, no organization took responsibility. Although, in general, an anonymous terrorist attack is nonsense, since it is, as a rule, initially aimed at a wide informational and public response.

If experts are right that today's terrorist activity is purposeful and planned, then a whole set of measures is needed to prevent the growth of the terrorist threat:

• It is necessary to improve the forms and methods of preventing terrorist threats. Today, domestic special services need to actively develop practical experience and skills in combating terrorism in real conditions;
• Special attention should be paid not only to the protection of strategic infrastructure facilities (oil and gas pipelines, water and heat supply enterprises), as well as other facilities of important state importance, but also to strengthening measures to protect the population in emergency situations caused by manifestations of terrorism. As in the case of natural disasters, for example, earthquakes, both citizens themselves and the relevant services should know and be able to act in crisis situations;
• special attention should be paid to building a system for timely and competent explanatory work. After all, it is objective, timely and balanced information that makes it possible to prevent the appearance of rumors and to stop any provocations to dump disinforming materials.

But the most important thing is that the fight against terrorism should not be reduced to strengthening the punitive functions of the state, strengthening the special services and other mostly organizational measures. First of all, it should be aimed at neutralizing the prerequisites and causes of the spread of terrorism.

Today, there is no consensus in expert circles regarding the causes of terrorism. Some believe that the catalyst is the aggravation of socio-economic problems (poverty, poverty, marginalization of society). Others see the primary basis in the specifics of the political regime (the degree of openness/closeness of society, the level of enlightenment, the level of rights and freedoms). Still others believe that the basis of terrorism is socio-cultural deformation (devaluation of certain values and moral norms).

It must be borne in mind that terrorism is a global problem. Thus, according to the British company Maple Croft, which annually publishes the "Terrorism Risk Index", there is no territory in the world where, in principle, there would be no threat of terrorism, with the exception of Greenland and Antarctica. Here, Kazakhstan belongs to countries with a low threat of terrorism and is on par with most European countries (the threat level in the UK, France, Spain and the USA is much higher).

At the same time, one should not underestimate the threat of terrorism, try to silence it and deny the threat itself in a particular country. But it is also impossible to allow terrorism to be overestimated, to play up to it with an atmosphere of panic and phobias, thereby enhancing the effect of public resonance, because any terrorist attack is primarily designed for a public and mass effect. Maintaining such a balance will allow us to build an adequate and effective system for ensuring security and responding to the terrorist threat.