Unit 7

 

          

  As the world turns to observe and condemn the recent actions of the Kremlin in Crimea, the War on Drugs continues. Afghanistan boarders many post-Soviet states, and with a booming drug trade where 80% of the world’s opium is produced it has become harder for Russian law enforcement to stop the influx of Heroine that is being smuggled through their boarders. Though it is no secret Afghanistan is a lawless land where the one with the most guns dictates what goes on, the Russian government has explicitly stated that America’s sanctions “deliberately destroy[ing] the international anti-drug cooperation in order to hide its responsibility for the drug crisis in Afghanistan.”

            This accusation could very well just be part of the exchange of blows from America and Russia. Recently the boss of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service, Viktor Ivanov, became blacklisted from America. As a result his department stated “The unfriendly action itself and the US visa ban on the director of the Russian Drug Control Service is severing the successful and fruitful cooperation with Russia in fighting against illegal drugs.”  

            As a result The RFDCS has called on the U.N. Security Council to make combating the drug trade in Afghanistan a priority. The plan provided details about not only removing all Opium and Marijuana fields in Afghanistan, but subsidizing landlords that profit from the sale of drugs with other means to earn. This plan also includes talks of somehow providing Afghan citizens with two million new jobs in order to curb the desire to participate in illegal methods of acquiring income, whether it is terrorism or drugs. 

Sources:

http://rt.com/politics/russia-drugs-afghanistan-threat-069/

http://rt.com/politics/drugs-sanctions-us-russia-329/