U.S., NATO Foster Planetary Heroin Epidemic: Russia

Interfax
March 25, 2014

U.S., NATO divest themselves of responsibility for “catastrophic growth” of Afghan drug production – FSKN

MOSCOW: The decision by Western countries to stop cooperation with Russia in the G8 format because of the Crimean events will damage the anti-drug fight in Afghanistan, Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) head Viktor Ivanov said.

“The West scrapped the G8 at a time when Russia made the anti-drug fight a priority of its presidency of the G8 this year,” Ivanov said at a conference in Moscow on Tuesday.

“This can hardly be seen other than a radical method by the U.S. and NATO to divest themselves of responsibility for the surge in Afghan drug production which has seen a surge in production of nearly 40 times since the moment of occupation of this long-suffering country by the armed forces of the U.S. and NATO,” he said.

“Since the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom in October 2001, the UN has objectively registered an explosive and catastrophic growth in drug production in Afghanistan. Heroin production grew by more than 40 times,” Ivanov continued.

He is one of the Russian citizens put under U.S. sanctions after the Crimean accession to Russia.

“The main impressive result of Operation Enduring Freedom is the transformation of Afghanistan into a drug production zone of a planetary scale; it now makes twice as many opiates than the entire world made a decade ago,” Ivanov indicated.

“Clearly, it was not that the West banished Russia from the G8 but it [the West] moved away from solving the global problem of drug production in Afghanistan,” he said.

“In the course of its presidency of the G8, Russia intended to propose a comprehensive strategy for solving this problem, and, consistent with UN policy, its top priority was modern programs of alternative development, to which today’s meeting is dedicated,” Ivanov said.