Medvedev orders embassies to be on guard after Bin Laden killing
16:29 11/05/2011 MOSCOW, May 11 (RIA Novosti) - President Dmitry Medvedev instructed Russian embassies on Wednesday to be prepared for emergencies including terror attacks, and said the killing of any terrorist is intimately linked to security in Russia.
His statement comes amid concerns over the threat of revenge attacks after al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden was shot dead by U.S. special forces during a raid on his home in the Pakistani town of Abbottabad last week.
Medvedev ordered Russian embassies abroad to work out a "response algorithm" to deal with emergencies including terror attacks.
"There should be a working algorithm of response to emergencies, which would allow us to defend our missions abroad and the people who are there, as well as quickly evacuate our tourists and businessmen," he said.
"The elimination of terrorists, even as high-profile as the recently killed bin Laden, is directly related to the level of security in our nation," Medvedev told a security meeting in his Gorky residence near Moscow.
"It is no secret that the terrorist network al Qaeda has regularly sent and continues to send its emissaries to the territory of our country," the president said.
Russian security forces killed an al Qaeda emissary, Doger Sevdet, also known as Abdulla Kurd, in an operation last week in the country's troubled North Caucasus region, where federal security forces have been fighting an Islamist insurgency for more than a decade.
Medvedev signed off a bill last week that grants him authority to impose additional security measures in the event of an increased terrorism threat.
The move came a month after Moscow marked the first anniversary of twin suicide bomb attacks in the city's metro and less than three months after a suicide bomb attack at Domodedovo international airport outside the capital.
The combined attacks left 77 people dead and scores wounded and prompted police to tighten security at public transport hubs across the city.
Both incidents were blamed on militants from the North Caucasus.
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