MOSCOW (Sputnik) — Discussions and geopolitical interests are "completely different things," the Russian leader added.
"For us it was an obvious fact that the international terrorism was also used as a means of fighting against Russia, while everyone either turned a blind eye on that or provided support to terrorists — I refer to political, information, financial or in some cases even armed support to the actors fighting against the Russian state," Putin told Germany's Bild newspaper.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, a number of terror attacks took place in Russia, and the most notorious attacks were linked to the First Chechen war and the activities of armed groups from the North Caucasus.
As the Second Chechen War began in 1999, a number of terror attacks targeting civilian infrastructure and residential buildings swept through Russia, targeting the largest cities of Moscow and St. Petersburg among others. The CRI was abolished de facto by the Russian army in 2000, de jure, ceased to exist in 2007. By 2009, the Russian forced killed major CRI terrorist leaders and canceled the counter-terror operation regime in the region.
