fight against drug trafficking

Yesterday, a meeting on combating drug trafficking was held at the residence of the plenipotentiary representative in the Urals Federal District. Its participants developed another action plan and assessed the work of the Drug-Free City Foundation. Details in the material of NIKOLAY YABLONSKY.

The Russian State Committee for Control over the Traffic in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Gosnarkokontrol) was created in March 2003 on the initiative of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Its functions include combating illegal drug trafficking, coordinating the activities of executive authorities, international cooperation in this direction and anti-drug propaganda. Yesterday in Yekaterinburg, under the auspices of the Plenipotentiary Representative of the President of Russia in the Urals Federal District, Pyotr Latyshev, a meeting was held at which the district authorities presented their wishes to the State Drug Control Service.
After a meager report from representatives of law enforcement agencies, the governor of the Chelyabinsk region, Pyotr Sumin, was instructed to speak out. The biggest concerns of the head of the Southern Urals were caused by the large opium harvest that was harvested in Afghanistan this year. “And this means that we need to be on guard: after all, the Chelyabinsk region borders on Kazakhstan, through which drugs enter Russia,” Mr. Sumin warned everyone.
True, the police in response were unable to formulate how they would counter the drug threat. But the head of the main department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation in the Urals Federal District, Alexey Krasnikov, demonstrated that he has an excellent command of statistics: how many drug dealers were detained, how many special operations were carried out and how much money was spent on prevention (64 million rubles). But it was not possible to fully hear the statistical report of the security forces. Pyotr Latyshev, bored after just three minutes of Mr. Krasnikov’s speech, still could not stand it and tried to interrupt the head of the district Ministry of Internal Affairs. “Maybe we shouldn’t practice with numbers?” — the plenipotentiary asked and advised to “enliven the conversation” with specific proposals. And Alexey Krasnikov began to “revive the conversation” by complaining about the lack of proper interaction with the State Drug Control Service, but again unconsciously switched to the language of numbers. The plenipotentiary once again tried to direct the general in a different direction, but as a result he waved his hand.
Alexey Krasnikov refrained from analyzing the work of the Drug-Free City Foundation. But it was impossible to avoid talking about him. Yuri Dolevsky, Chairman of the 21st Century Without Drugs Foundation, was the first to remember the foundation. He began with praise for public organizations that are not indifferent to the problem of drug addiction. From the context it was clear that these included “21st century without drugs.” True, it remains unclear what exactly the merit of each organization is. And everything would be fine, but Mr. Dolevsky could not resist criticizing “random people,” to which, of course, he included “City Without Drugs.” “The management of the foundation has arrogated to itself the right to perform the functions of law enforcement agencies and deprive people of their freedom,” Mr. Dolevsky began. But he, like General Krasnikov, was not allowed to speak out by the plenipotentiary representative. “This is not the audience where you should talk about such things,” Mr. Latyshev said edifyingly. Apparently, the chairman of the State Drug Control Service of Russia, Viktor Cherkesov, who was present at the meeting, decided to support the plenipotentiary. He looked meaningfully at Yuri Dolevsky: “We know what is happening in which funds.” This concluded the conversation about the methods of the “Drug-Free City”.
But on the sidelines, Mr. Cherkesov nevertheless expressed his opinion to journalists about the effectiveness of the fund’s activities. “We need to extract useful things from his work, but not allow excesses,” he tactfully noted.
The meeting ended with a speech by the Minister of Labor and Social Development, Alexander Pochinok, who complained that “we are losing workers due to drug addiction.”
The meeting participants also demonstrated their excellent memory, quoting Russian President Vladimir Putin by heart: almost every speech began with his words that the drug threat is tantamount to the threat of terrorism. Everyone tried to prove that they were ready to eliminate this threat. To begin with, we decided to create several more public organizations that will fight drug addiction and the drug business. The plenipotentiary representative, closing the meeting, said, not without pathos: “We serve society, and they can demand changes for the better from us.”

Kommersant (Ekaterinburg) No. 207 dated November 13, 2003, p. 13

Gosnarkokontrol received a plan