Sentischeva V.P.

Scientific supervisor: Lavlinsky R.A.

Donetsk National University of Economics and Trade

after M. Tugan-Baranovsky, Ukraine

The problem of terrorism: the Ukrainian aspect

Terror and terrorism issues are widely discussed in the modern world. Ukraine is also involved in this discussion. The main issues to be solved are how to prevent terrorism, what legal basis are necessary to create, what is to be introduced into work of security services.

So, to consider terrorism from different points of view, first of all it is necessary to give definition of the term “terrorism”. The notion of terrorism has a lot of definitions, beginning with purely philological, where terrorism is a policy of intimidation, suppression of political contenders by violence, finishing with legal definitions, where it means violence or threat of use of violence against physical persons or organizations; an attack on the representative of the foreign state or the employee of the international organization , who are internationally protected, if these actions are performed in an effort to provoke war or to complicate international relations.

Conventionally, the terrorism can be divided into two types: world terrorism and internal terrorism. The world terrorism includes radical organizations which carry out their activity worldwide. The most known representatives of this terrorism are al-Qaeda and the Taliban. They are guided by religious beliefs. As it is known, at Islam there is such concept as jihad. Reasoning from this, Islamic extremists make up the main part of the world terrorism. The second type of terrorism is internal terrorism. It occurs because of the internal contradictions caused by the various reasons, and it is one of the acutest forms of internal political confrontation.

The internal terrorism has two basic manifestations: first one is activity of internal, extreme focused political forces against the existing power; second one is activity of contending extremely oriented political forces and organizations. In the first case negative attitude to an existing system and political power is expressed, in the second case the actions are directed to weakening of competitors.

The terrorism can be divided into kinds, depending on the reasons causing its occurrence. The following kinds of terrorism are distinguished: nationalistic, which pursues separative or nationalistic aims; religious, which can be connected with struggle of religion adherents against each other (Hindu and Moslems, Moslems and Christians) and within one faith (Catholics-Protestants, Sunni-Shias), and which pursues the aim to break secular authority and to maintain religious power; social, which pursues the aim of radical or partial change of economic or political system of the country, the aim of attraction of society attention to any acute issue. Sometimes this kind of terrorism is called revolutionary.

Recently terrorists use the Internet more often. Surfing the Internet one can find not only sites, which contain detailed instructions on production of bombs and other means to carry out acts of terrorism, but also sites, which ideologically prove different kinds of terrorist activity. Besides, the Internet is used as a mean of struggle against the state structures of the opponent. A cyber-attack to the Iranian nuclear station in autumn 2010 can serve an example of this. A foreign organization or a state has developed Stuxnet – a quickly mutative computer virus, which was introduced into networks of industrial computer systems in Islamic republic. The worm has infected over 30.000 computers, including personal computers of the employee of the atomic power station of Bushehr.

Further let’s analyze the factors, which cause the absence of terrorism in Ukraine. Ukraine isn't the target of the international terrorist organizations. It is due the fact that our country doesn't conduct active foreign policy as, for example, the USA. As well, the quantity of Moslems in our country is rather small, that’s why the state doesn’t have to regulate activity of religious institutions or to introduce standards of religious behavior. Because of all this there is no international terrorism in Ukraine. In this connection our country has poor legal and regulatory framework for protection of the population against acts of terrorism. In Ukraine the Counterterrorism law is in operation. The only structure which deals with antiterrorist protection in Ukraine is Security Service of Ukraine, in particular the Anti-Terrorist Center under the jurisdiction of Security Service of Ukraine.

However our country is apt to occurrence of internal terrorism, in particular the nationalistic terrorism. It is caused by the division of the country in the West-East direction. Even now there are radical organizations "Svoboda" and "Trizub" in the country, which propagandize and perform acts of vandalism to monuments of the Soviet culture. Probably, the adoption of law concerning the status of Russian language as a second state language can only make things worse.

Nowadays Ukraine sees terrorism problem due the Euro 2012. But Ukraine have to prepare for this event with other country, because the boarders between Ukraine and Poland will be open by many visitors of football event. And government of Ukraine does a lot of things for that and the recent meeting confirms it. Kiev and Warsaw must strengthen anti-terrorism measures during the Euro 2012 soccer championship, Ukrainian Prime Minister Mykola Azarov said at the meeting with Polish counterpart Donald Tusk here Wednesday. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry intends to deploy 19,000 police officers to maintain public order during the tournament. In addition, more than 10,000 people will work as "Foreign Ministry agents" during the championship in Ukraine. The Ministry has also prepared 4,000 video cameras and more than 5,000 emergency police call systems to improve fan security. In March 2011, Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych initiated the set up of headquarters for international cooperation in ensuring security during EURO 2012. The control centers will be created on the basis of the Anti-Terrorist Center of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).

Thus, at the given stage of society development terrorism gets wider scope, there appear new methods of carrying out of acts of terrorism. Having analyzed the terroristic situation in Ukraine, one can tell that we live in the safe country, and that our country doesn't need any additional protective measures yet. After all if under the influence of acts of terrorism we are going to take steps on transformation of the democratic state into police one, it should be a clear victory of terrorists.