St. Petersburg, February 6, 2012, Asia-Plus – Issues related to countering terrorism and extremism were the focus of a meeting of representatives from Russia’s migration services with Tajik labor migrants that took place in St. Petersburg at the end of last week, Bakhtiyor Ismonov, representative of Tajik Migration Service’s office in the Russian Federation, said in an interview with Asia-Plus.

According to him, the meeting took place in the St. Petersburg Friday Mosque and the meeting members included Vitaly Ilchenko, an assistance to the head of the Russian Federal Migration Service (FMS)’s office for St. Petersburg and Leningrad oblast, Bakhtibek Berdov, head of the ethnic and cultural organization “Pamir,” Tajik clerics and representatives of Tajik migrants working in St. Petersburg and Leningrad oblast.

“The main objective of the meeting was in preventing possible extremist moods among labor migrants and involvement of them in various extremist and terrorist groups operating in the Russian Federation,” said Ismonov.  “Representatives from Tajik and Russian migration services and clerics elucidated the notions of “religious extremism” and “terrorism” to those present and informed them of severity of punishment for terrorism.”

In all, more than 400 people reportedly attended the meeting.