"The problem is that democratic states have proved unready for such a fast development of events in the world and not ready to face new global problems," he said live on the NTV channel.
Mr. Ivanov explained that criminal structures, whether terrorist or others, don't need long procedures to make a decision. "They coordinate within days or months what to do," said Mr. Ivanov.
"To frustrate it, prevent their operations, we have to pass through the whole democratic chain of making decisions and act within the law," he stressed.
He said he had always advocated the necessity of legal basis for any actions. "As soon as you go beyond the legal field in one issue, even if it's justified, tomorrow you are tempted to act so in other situations as well," he said.
"Where is the line where you have to stop, who will define it? This will be a person vested with actually huge capabilities but controlled by no one," said Mr. Ivanov.
"Maybe having resolved one problem in this way, we will generate other problems in the future, which will prove more difficult to resolve," he believes.
Speaking on the changes in the public life caused by the terrorist threat, he noted: "Today, there is no country in the world where [people] wouldn't criticize law enforcement bodies, because life has become restless and uncertain. Unfortunately, this is the state of the population not only in Russia today."
Mr. Ivanov spoke on Russians' attitude in regard to law enforcement bodies. "I don't think today public opinion is sure that policemen present a threat to the citizens," he said. In his opinion, those representatives of the law enforcement bodies who commit unlawful acts are "renegades and not the whole structure."
