Community | June 29, 2009 | 45 comments

Russia blames US for flood of Afghan heroin into country

source: http://www.mcclatchydc.com/227/story/70851.html

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Russian officials publicly blame America for the plague because almost all the heroin comes from U.S.-dominated Afghanistan, but they won't discuss in detail how drugs move through their country. They've yet to devise a comprehensive plan to address the issue. Trials of high-level traffickers are conducted in secret. Even midlevel police officials usually don't talk, and when they do, it's privately and away from their workplaces.

'THE AMERICANS HAVE DONE NOTHING'

Chelyabinsk, a city of more than 1 million in southwest Russia, once was known as Tankograd — "tank city" — for its World War II production of T-34 tanks. It later gained notoriety as the center of a region swamped by radioactive waste from a nearby nuclear-weapons facility.

A different poison is spreading today: Chelyabinsk has become a major transshipment center for Afghan opium and heroin, which enters Russia from Central Asia.

The drugs usually reach Russia from Tajikistan and Kazakhstan in trucks or, in smaller amounts, tucked away in train compartments or nervous travelers' stomachs.

The trade is nothing new in Russia, but after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001, it exploded. Afghan opium production climbed from 3,400 metric tons in 2002 to a record 8,200 metric tons in 2007, partly because U.S. and NATO-led troops put a low priority on curbing it. Heroin flooded into Central Asia, and on to Russia.

"When I heard the Americans were going to enter Afghanistan I thought they were going to solve the problem, to stop the drugs," said Yevgeny Roizman, who had connections with Russian organized crime before he became a member of parliament. He now runs an anti-drug organization in the city of Yekaterinburg, another big heroin-distribution hub north of Chelyabinsk.

"But in the period after they came, there was a big increase in the region . . . ," Roizman added. "It makes me think the Americans have done nothing to stop the drug trafficking."

Although it's an unintended consequence of the U.S. action in Afghanistan, some Russian officials trace the growing problem to an American plot.
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45 comments // Russia blames US for flood of Afghan heroin into country

  • artemis6
    • 0
      artemis6  

    • I agree , piratesauce , All wars (drugs , terror , ect..) are wars against people for profit . It is a good thing for those profiteers that people do not realize this . We WAY outnumber them ...

    • 2 years ago
  • royulery
    • 0
      royulery  

    • the afghan war, among other things, broke the soviet unions back. we helped covertly, with stinger missiles to destroy their great war ships. the trade in herion weakens russia just as our stingers did. there is a small threat that the communists could regain control of russia and to counteract that possibility america has many programs.
      america wants to look like the good guy. thats why we fight wars and protest them at the same time, its about corporate image. herion is one of the things eroding the russian economy and keeping them dependant on the american dollar.

    • 2 years ago
  • RussianFE
    • 0
      RussianFE  
    • royulery:

      There are some mistakes in this artikle. In fact, the goverement of Afganistan has stopped the production and farming drugs. After US army has enterea Afganistan, pruduction of drugs started again.
      Think again...

    • 2 years ago
  • ozoneocean
    • 0
      ozoneocean  

    • It's sad. There should have been no invasion in the first place, now the US led coalition is learning the same lesson as the Russians: Afghanistan is easy to win and impossible to hold. The responsible thing to do would be to stop the farmers producing this stuff so they can't fund the Taliban insurgency anymore- but stop them by giving them something worthwhile to replace that massive income source with.

    • 2 years ago
  • remanns
    • 0
      remanns  

    • The only substances which should be illegal, and hence of hyper inflated profit margin, should be fissionable materials,coal-petro geoturds, bio toxins, and slave bodies. And we should slowly and painfully,....and with utmost certainty, remove pimps of these "wealth-makes-wastes" from the planets surface. When poppies cost the same as cabbage---NO PROBLEM.
      (and at least we won't have to take any hypocritical bs from the plutocrat/mobsters that pretend to be "Russia"in 2009. We don't need these toxic products and processes to survive,...AND WE SURE AS HELL DON'T NEED THEM.

    • 2 years ago
  • keithponder
  • Bushido
  • TonyRivera
  • PirateSauce
  • trelk
  • mwrightchef
  • GodsnLiberals
  • trelk
    • 0
      trelk  
    • trelk:

      i think smoking opium is a little stronger than coffee and little weaker than POISON! it is probably the safest way to consume the poppy other than eating a bagel.

    • 2 years ago
  • KCHARLES
  • bleem411
  • MinneapolisMafia
  • Tyrannous
  • jkudurog45
    • 0
      jkudurog45  

    • Maybe Russia should stop focusing on WHERE the heroin is coming from and start thinking about WHY their population is deciding slamming heroin is a good idea. Maybe things need to change in RUSSIA.

    • 2 years ago
  • ebruce2
  • MinneapolisMafia
  • dreamsenvoy
  • 23485768934756
  • GodsnLiberals
  • ebruce2
    • 0
      ebruce2  

    • Something tells me that Mother Russia is still a bit salty about getting their asses handed to them by the Afghans back in the 80's.

      If there's one thing we are experts at here in the US, it is going to war for profit. Maybe now we can pay off our massive debt to China, lol.

    • 2 years ago
  • GodsnLiberals
  • idealist
    • 0
      idealist  

    • uh oh!
      u.s is getting called out on the fact that we took over the poppy feilds were a big precent of the worlds most addictive drugs are made, yet we havent destroyed it, in fact weve been sitting on it like theres profit to be made!

      hmmmmm, hows that for a war on drugs?!

    • 2 years ago
  • 23485768934756
  • Snuff99
  • GodsnLiberals
    • 0
      GodsnLiberals  
    • idealist:

      well getting rid of those poppy fields would get rid a source of income for these people..you would not mind if we take that away from them (i dont mind at all but a lot of people *lliberals cough cough* gets pretty steamed if you so much as look at thier direction the wrong way let alone torch that field

    • 2 years ago
  • krush_productions
  • Bushido
    • 0
      Bushido  
    • idealist:

      "More like the Military's cultivating it and sending it to Russia."

      That is the most idiotic statement I have ever read. The military has a lot of other things to attend to, such as hunting and killing the Taliban. You anti-military pukes don't need logic so long as you can blame the military for every tertiary consequence in the world. The war on drugs is not a war the military concerns itself with, and rightly so.

    • 2 years ago
  • uberdeft
    • 0
      uberdeft  

    • Mr Roizman was once himself involved with organized crime and now gets to blow this whistle? My entire life savings says this man is a kingpin for heroin in his mother Russia.

    • 2 years ago
  • Leonidis
    • Leonidis  
    • This comment was removed by its owner.
  • Leonidis
  • lapedro
    • 0
      lapedro  

    • Production probably went up proportionately to the number of people wanting to slam heroin to forget about the dissatisfactory way in which the world has been run the past few years...

    • 2 years ago
  • Leonidis
  • cybexg
    • 0
      cybexg  

    • "But in the period after they came, there was a big increase in the region . . . ," Roizman added. "It makes me think the Americans have done nothing to stop the drug trafficking."

      BFD...hey, I've got an idea...solve your OWN damn problems....I'm so sick of everyone expecting America to wipe their ass.

    • 2 years ago
  • Bushido
  • jh64487
    • 0
      jh64487  

    • same situation as in bolivia. what else are those farmers going to grow? and if they aren't going to farm what else are they going to do with their lives.

    • 2 years ago
  • WakeUpPeople
  • GodsnLiberals
  • WakeUpPeople
  • GodsnLiberals
    • 0
      GodsnLiberals  
    • WakeUpPeople:

      oh I am sure the Taliban had changed since then...(are you serious?)

      but then again, as they say the truth is a 2 sided sword (whatever) but lets play what I am saying and lets play what you are saying

      My version: the taliban is using the drug industry's BILLION DOLLAR profits to fund thier operations (not unless its in thier military budget for 2008*sarcasam im sorry)

      OR

      your version: the taliban stop and is enforcing laws to stop the BILLION dollar drug industry because they care about the people of afghanistan..

      you pick..

    • 2 years ago
  • GodsnLiberals
  • WakeUpPeople
    • 0
      WakeUpPeople  
    • WakeUpPeople:

      I used the same website as you to disprove your assertion, and you won't accept it?

      My article is from Feb 2001, yours is from Oct 2001 when US forces invaded. I'm sure they had to find ways to fund the war to protect their stranglehold on Afghanistan, but before the war, they had practically eliminated the poppy fields according to UN investigators. And who controls Afghanistan now?

      Did you follow my link?

    • 2 years ago
  • GodsnLiberals
    • 0
      GodsnLiberals  
    • WakeUpPeople:

      I sent you another link from yahoo dated this year..I dont think you understand the beast we call "taliban"...

      before we, I assume you are american, came in. the taliban needed funds to keep a religious hold in Afghanistan (ak-47s are expensive and payroll kills them) .and I am sure they are not funding thier operations via bake sales or charitable donations..they are being bankrolled by heroin addicts world wide...

      find one person who would agree with your that the taliban would STOP A MILLION DOLLAR operation because they LOVE THIER FOLLOWERS/slave..come on brother...wake up

    • 2 years ago
  • WakeUpPeople
    • 0
      WakeUpPeople  
    • WakeUpPeople:

      GnL. *facepalm* You aren't following the initial premise of this thread. You are sending links dated from this year thinking that they will overrule the articles from the time when the Taliban contolled the country. I was simply stating the fact that the Taliban almost completely halted opium production BEFORE the US invasion. And I didn't say anything about the Taliban halting the poppy growth because "they loved their followers/slaves" (BTW, stop injecting stupid inferences). They stopped the growth for political reasons. I would usually just post a link to prove my point, but I'm not entirely sure that you would follow it, so instead I will paste it below.
      ~~~~~~~~~~~
      The defeat of the Taliban would result in a surge in opium production, which has been virtually halted in Afghanistan by the Kabul regime over the last year, United Nations officials have warned.

      A new UN survey reveals that the Taliban have completed one of the quickest and most successful drug elimination programmes in history.

      The area of land given over to growing opium poppies in 2001 fell by 91 per cent compared with the year before, according to the UN Drug Control Programme's (UNDCP) annual survey of Afghanistan. Production of fresh opium, the raw material for heroin, went down by an unprecedented 94 per cent, from 3,276 tonnes to 185 tonnes.

      Almost all Afghan opium this year came out of territories controlled by America's ally in the assault on Afghanistan, the Northern Alliance. Because of a ban on poppy farming, only one in 25 of Afghanistan's opium poppies was being grown in Taliban areas.

      However, while poppy cultivation dropped, exports of refined opium and heroin from the Taliban-controlled areas remained unchanged because of stockpiles.

      Some UN officials privately believe that the Taliban have not received enough credit for controlling drugs, and that under any post-Taliban regime cultivation, consumption – and the amount of opium and heroin on world markets – would inevitably increase.

      "These are things which no one can say," said one UN official who worked in Afghanistan before the terrorist attacks of 11 September. "No other government in the world would have been able to do that. When I travelled through Badakshan [a province largely controlled by the Northern Alliance] you often saw the poppies."

      In its early years the Taliban justified the cultivation of opium on the basis that it was a drug consumed abroad by unbelievers.

      But in 2000, the regime changed its mind and vigorously enforced the ban, apparently in the hope of winning credit with the UN and strengthening its claim to Afghanistan's seat in the General Assembly, currently occupied by the Northern Alliance.

      Source: http://www.opioids.com/afghanistan/prediction.html

    • 2 years ago
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