Interview: Russian official urges universal security standards to counter terrorism

As the international community is faced with growing terrorist threats, a Russian official called for adopting universal security standards and attitudes for more efficient anti-terror fight.

All international airports should adopt certain universal security standards, Igor Chernyshev, deputy head of Social Policy Committee at the Federation Council, Russia's upper house of parliament, told Xinhua.

His suggestion came as a Russian airplane crashed over Egypt's Sinai Peninsula on Oct. 31, killing all 224 people aboard.

The investigation of the tragedy has not yet finished, but multiple reports, as well as the suspension of all Russian passenger flights to Egypt, seemed to support the theory that a bomb could have been smuggled into the jet.

The extremist group Islamic State said it was behind the Russian plane crash.

Chernyshev said that there are many unpredictable factors that influence flight security, while objective information should be provided to determine the real causes of the plane crash.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday stressed that no version of the cause of the air crash can be ruled out, and it is necessary to wait for official investigation results, no matter how long the process can be.

Chernyshev noted that there are different attitudes and double or even triple standards of security among countries that give chances for terrorism.

Warning that terrorists are becoming more and more sophisticated to bypass preventive anti-terror measures, he called on the international community to concentrate efforts on preventing terrorist attacks and on investigating their roots.

Meanwhile, the official said Russian military airstrikes in Syria should be accelerated in order to prevent new civilian casualties in Syria and the spread of terrorism in Russian territories.

"We now have to do everything in our power to prevent the enemy from coming to our land," Chernyshev stressed.

Russia started its own airstrikes in Syria on Sept. 30 at the request of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.

A coalition led by the United States has already been conducting airstrikes in Syria since September 2014.

Following terrorist attacks in Paris, Russia has increased security operations nationwide, especially in Moscow region. Endi