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Putin says Russia must be united to face up to terrorism
Interfax

Moscow, 13 September: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said that it's necessary to "radically review" the mechanisms of state authority in Russia.

"The country's state authority must not be merely adapted to work in crisis situations. The mechanisms of its work should be radically reviewed in order to prevent crises," Vladimir Putin told an expanded meeting of the Russian government on Monday [13 September].

He stressed that "in their far-reaching plans the terrorists are trying to cause the country to disintegrate and to undermine the state".

"The country's unity is the main condition of countering terrorism," the president stressed.

He said that the current gathering of the government is being held in an unusual format. Vladimir Putin said that "the whole country and the entire world are shaken by the events in Beslan".

However, the president said, "compassion and words of support from the authorities is absolutely not enough". "We have to achieve greater efficiency of the authorities in resolving the entire range of problems facing the country, because not a single issue, even such an important one as citizens' security, can be resolved efficiently out of context," Vladimir Putin stressed.

The president said that at the meeting he would like to dwell in detail on the problems he touched upon in his 4 September address to the nation. Vladimir Putin singled out "the country's unity, the strengthening of state structures and trust in them and the creation of an efficient system of internal security".