Russia urges creation of digital drug busting map
Baku, November 18 (AZERTAC). Russia has urged the creation of a Digital Poppy Road Map to combat Afghan drug trafficking, the country`s Federal Drug Control Service chief Viktor Ivanov said on Thursday. He was speaking in Chicago after a session of the Russian-US anti-drug working group which was earlier established under the auspices of a bilateral presidential panel.
The interactive road map stipulates recording all relevant information on poppy crops, drug labs, warehouses and routes of transit. During the Chicago session, the sides, in particular, agreed to continue holding joint anti-drug operations and exchanging information on suspected drug dealers and drug trafficking routes.
Tackling heroin production in Afghanistan topped the gathering`s agenda, with the Russian side reminding that in the decade since the US and NATO military operation began in Afghanistan, production of opium poppies has increased drastically there. Actually, Afghanistan has already turned into a drug monopoly on the global black market. Exacerbating the situation is the US` reluctance to deal with destroying Afghan opium poppy crops, something that Washington fears may finally prod local peasants to join the Taliban. This is why Russia urged the US to simplify the process of coordinating joint anti-drug efforts, Viktor Ivanov said.
"I have proposed creating a kind of unified command which could bring together representatives of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service, the US Drug Enforcement Administration and NATO, Ivanov says. They hope, he adds, that NATO experts will add substantially to destroying drug laboratories and poppy fields in Afghanistan."
Unlike the Drug Enforcement Administration, Russia`s Federal Drug Control Service insists that nipping drug production in the bud is a top priority, Ivanov said.
He lamented the fact that the US is sitting on its hands when it comes to fighting drug production - a topic that remains a stumbling block between Moscow and Washington. The US knows full well that any crackdown on drug dealers in Afghanistan and northern Pakistan is fraught with a possible social unrest there which in turn may lead to the US` losing control of the situation.
Russia wants the creation of a transparent system of monitoring all across Afghanistan, something that will help prevent Afghan heroin from being delivered to Russia, China, the EU countries and other regions.
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