Mineralnyye Vody, 15 August: In Chechnya, there are no organized terrorist groups capable of committing large-scale terrorist acts in the republic or beyond its boundaries, the president of the Republic of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, told Interfax in the airport of the town of Mineralnyye Vody.

This is how he commented on the unconfirmed reports that appeared in the mass media on Wednesday (15 August), according to which the responsibility for the derailment of the Moscow-St Petersburg was claimed by a group called Riyad Al-Salihin.

"This was the beloved tactics of Raduyevs, Basayevs, Udugovs (rebel leaders) and others - to claim responsibility for everything that happened in the world. This tactics is known to all and contains nothing new. This is how Basayevs, Udugovs and Raduyevs tried to account for the huge funds they received," Kadyrov noted.

He stressed that "although these leaders of terrorist organizations have been long since destroyed, there are still bandits who, by presenting themselves as some Riyad Al-Salihin or the army of Dzhokhar Dudayev or something like this, are trying to distract the attention of the investigation from the executors of the terrorist acts".

"In Chechnya, like in any part of the country or in any state of the world, it is possible that there are criminals but there is no terrorist underground and there are certainly no organizations behind the impressive names, such as Riyad Al-Salihin and the like," Kadyrov stressed.

"The statements claiming that some forces allegedly based in Chechnya have been involved in high-profile terrorist acts could also be disseminated by those who are seriously concerned about the positive processes that are taking place in the republic. We have broken the necks of all know terrorist organizations, we destroyed them and left them without leadership. However, some remnants, perhaps, who escaped Chechnya long ago, would want to create the appearance of there being force and organization," Kadyrov noted.

At the same time he stressed that fight against terrorism requires agreed and coordinated actions from all law enforcement bodies in the country.

"I have announced many a time over the past few years that the fight with this evil must take place on a daily basis. And, thank God, this is now being done in North Caucasus as a whole. I am convinced that in a very near future the remnants of these renegades will find their place deep below the ground," Kadyrov stressed.