straight after his graduation he served. in the state security organizations starting. to director of the federal security service through. the administration of the russian president to the russian president in two thousand. russian federal drug control service during one of conferences he said that there are more than twenty four thousand registered. but there could be. done in order to. thank you very much for coming. growth of drug

production in afghanistan when did it begin during the american invasion or perhaps even the solve it one. of the soviet troops. one government. first there was. none there was. no. changes violent. that prompted. in fact history shows that drug production usually follows military and political. screws. you personally participated in the military actions in afghanistan in the eighty's. today's american methods.

more effective do you think it's because frankly i didn't participate in the military actions directly but you could observe them right. i was an h.r. advisor but i certainly had an opportunity to see the way we have gained. the way in the quest for military operations and military achievements. i would make a distinction here because the u.s. and nato led international security assistance force. as a mandate of the u.n. security council. as your part of the war on terror. the often say today that this is no longer a war against terrorists so unfortunately you do more and more becomes a war against insurgents. he actually saw troops were also blamed for this fighting insurgents rather than

establishing order and yes there were such claims today. in your opinion what is the most efficient way of fighting drugs. say. plain physical eradication which is the reason i'm asking is because i recall that monsoonal bay area. with the head of security forces in a big region and he said it's impossible to do away with drugs of people cultivate them it's practically impossible as soon as the communist rule was over and free market and enter panetta she became a new reality right away a pharmacy poppy everywhere if we cut down the poppy their families would die so there's nothing we can do for them is the situation similar in afghanistan. you know there are many many. illegal drug trade on the one hand and the medical use of drugs on the other but at the. but she's there are two aspects of the same things

that only mean that it's necessary to reduce the amount of publicity drugs on the market and at the same time the demand for drugs should also museum initiatives among the population so these approaches have more recorded in three so called anti-drug conventions to doctored by the us if they do that as a way one of the priorities in this struggle is already question of crops which can be used for production but. as a matter of fact this political priority was set at the un general assembly session in one thousand nine hundred ninety eight somebody said and it was confirmed in two thousand and nine that should do so when the general assembly had been considering the work of the un commission on north korea drugs. unfortunately just getting stand like is extremely ineffective in eradication of crops used for drug production and there are no results there are less than three percent of the drug

czar destroyed. compare this with colombia where about seventy percent of drug plantations are destroyed annually you see these totally different social. well in fact russia is not only a transit zone for drugs in recent years russia has become the largest market for afghan heroin spotlights me there were reports. again this is do we. produce a ninety two percent of global opium poppy is cultivated here his market is good at sixty five billion dollars involves fifty million addicts but which one hundred thousand die each year. to be haunted by the florida drop trade to the federal drug control service one hundred and eighty have been drug cartel.

i've been busy traffic in the russian federation controlled fissions find out that most of the truck business is done in the provinces that are under the control of coalition forces and therefore in this zone over sponsibility in the since the us led incursion began to stand increase in the cultivation the drug has spread through neighboring to dawn and other central asian countries making neighboring russia particularly vulnerable to a last year's u.n. report no worse than seventy tons of heroin were trafficked to russia in two thousand and eight that's three times more than to the u.s. and canada together the smuggling of it and opiates has been fueling addiction then drug use alone trafficking routes over the last ten years to one particular truck russia skyrocketed to unfold and now claims up to forty thousand lives.

if you just said afghans are very slack in fighting against the poppy plantations and it's hardly possible to eradicate much poppy using just a tweak as we've just seen. but here's another thing those farmers who all feel sorry for they're not drug dealers but they just provide for their families because pop is the most profitable cropped up and they sell it very cheap to those who produce drugs why don't pharmaceutical companies buy it from them for as they are absolutely right about the financial aspect of the show because they still drugs for making profit. in southern afghanistan and that's where clashes take place and it's no accident here things will share common so helmand which produces sixty five percent. of has always been the richest the province the richest former live in helmand but it could climatic conditions there are very good. they have the helmand river and there is

a wonderful system of irrigation in other words they were needed money they were then wealthiest people and today this province has more troops than any other place so the financial factor the need to make a living is not the key here. but probably they became even richer when they started to cultivate poppy. they switched to poppy right but instead of getting richer they became poor deformities who grew up in the accountants pushing my seem very little money by the way to prosper off dropped last year it was ninety dollars in two thousand and eight and this year it cost sixty dollars. yes wrong while the price for herring has tripled in afghanistan thus you understand that the main beneficiaries here are not formers but there's no not producers dealers in the right especially those who deal with wholesale trade trafficking dealers if you

can. still i'd like to repeat my question which is why doesn't government buy this raw opium from pharma as. well the video we just saw says if again it's ten producers and sixty five billion dollars worth of drugs what the former see it is merely three hundred to three hundred fifty million dollars. that the taliban is said to participate as well. participates only to organized resistance to foreign troops. working to the u.s. senate the meeting on foreign relations this taliban earn seventy two one hundred fifty million dollars which is nearly steer zero point two percent of the overall drug production then who are they to the corrupt afghan government who is running this business is the afghan government is corrupt and it's not use for anybody by the way at the london conference on afghanistan it was said the level of corruption is extremely high. and use country so this means they are involved in drug

production. this means some government officials are involved in drug production. was asked during mere can colleagues to provide us with information on those who are imposed in this process both government officials and those who finance this illicit activity and profit from it is. you so what do the americans say. unfortunately we haven't heard from them yet by the way to washington in september and i met with gil can only call it was a high ranking official in the us administration i give him a list of drug brands which are available in russia one hundred and seventy five brands and this means to around one hundred and seventy five of the border stories in afghanistan producing drugs for russia you. tend to get the stance of organised to what about u.s. troops fighting against evil in afghanistan. just by shared knew but it was obvious

that insurgency is evil no matter how you call it the right time but what about drugs law are they evil too. why don't americans fight against drugs well. i believe illicit drug production use absolutely if you will and the entire international community has agreed with it what that they were considering the amount of drugs produced. problem has gone beyond of ganesan long time ago and that of course there are two rugs are trafficked why the three major. countries besides russia europe is another big consumer off. were to come. to us he comes by the northern route why is he country so central asia and this southern route. and pakistan's you go all across the world by seas says he's head of the russian with a. admiral drug control service will develop shortly will continue this interview

in less than a minute sal stay with us there were no. live

. culture is that so much different and there's a huge percentage of americans mind when is culture powerful than ideology today with the rise of an emerging economy is a prone to more clashes. one of the key elements of democracy which is so uncomfortable for me a ford. who pays for the news. how dependent does this independent media. and who is behind the t.v. story. charge and media fiction and reality.

welcome back to spotlight i'm just a reminder that my guest today is he head of the russian federal drug control service. to serve in office we began talking about combating drug. trafficking from afghanistan both to europe and russia. and afghanistan itself who do you count on what for some help in the pool in this matter and from the americans and their allies who are fighting the will of the afghan government that is highly corrupted as you well know and say. look at that. or is there no one you can count on there should. we count on setting up a wide anti-drug coalition that. it was used to isn't there one today that is my views our efforts are not coordinated and this is just taken to

a really cute drawing a production of guinness then are insufficient because. let me clarify this but first of all the international community and the united nations in the first place should consolidate its efforts and acknowledge disgraceful phenomena which it. produces twice as more sharing then the whole world. but he's avoided this phenomena needs to be classified as a threat to world peace and security. this is not the competence of the u.n. general assembly this is the competence of the u.n. security council unfortunately so for there has been only discussion no common stance has been worked out. is worked out and irrelevant resolution is adopted this will be a major step towards eliminating drugs production in afghanistan secondly the world

community including the u.s. security council issued and a mandate each national security and stability and assistance force once the building can be the arena state it has become a drug manufacturer base and cook with no stability. of course so in our view it's scenes with a u.n. mandate that has taken up responsibility for afghanistan's future should take care of that when you start off so it will end the mandate should include iraq war meant that the military force to destroy up production. companies and thirdly that the federal fish and seal of the international programs. stand in competent threats the implementation of these progress is the answer to better security which is transparent control of the international community but is that if you put us by your example mr richard holbrooke says they're destroying poppy fields is to expand

when you stand inefficient at the mall well there is no way you can be efficient if you are using methods that are clearly inefficient and you should see it in the middle like using a twig yes but there are some very efficient methods like. as you can see nothing much can be accomplished with a twig as for not home it's something i would hardly recommend of course however we curb besides our spurred by helicopters and aircraft to destroy plantations in colombia i don't this and i don't this is the same way you destroy we it's these are substances called life for say it incidentally many for misuse is to eliminate weeds thomas thomas wife a top official of the u.s. department of state who was in charge of trafficking becomes in our politics program for ghana's ten he's now retired says he's appointed this would grind of life or so he would have fingers before spring it on the weeds it's good this

substance is not that harmful but it can be very efficient in eliminating plantations. i see this by the way to mr ivanov which let's now talk about drugs in russia. as far as i know. drug consumption is on the rise in russia. despite the outstanding measures being taken but it sure what causes that demand supply. of the afghan produces and dealers to blame for this is the situation in no country that generates the demand. for luck turn mark first that the number of drug abusers has not been grown actually. the actual number of people but yes the number of drug consumers practically stabilized in two thousand or two thousand and one do it all richard it's time growth was basically exponential what about the good

thirty four cent that it's added every year. still the current levels on acceptably high but the most because it's too many people who are english to enjoy them use up their body. that's the first point then there is another thing the composition of drug consumption in russia which differs briefly from so that in europe or in the united states. but the difference is ninety percent of former drug addicted patients it's from of ghana stamp heroin first of all and according to the world health organization erin you see most. reparation that causes a severe addiction pathological different vision of the personnel that she invariably leads to death and poor seventy years. in other words russians same as with alcohol prefer strong things. yes we should admit

but sharing consumption in our country is huge for which there are two major causes first there is an external factor of afghanistan being a neighboring country producing an immense amount of narcotics but what you can one hundred in seventy five used those is. here. we say you think the most important factor is important even main thing is there is supply right right you cannot produce heroin in russia as it's climatic conditions are not suitable why is your agency against a methadone treatment which has been adopted in many countries and proved effective russia has categorically against it. but i would question your last statement that it proved effective and there have been no confirmed clinical scientific tests but what's more methadone addiction use more severe incidentally heroin intoxication is relieved in. cloris methadone intoxication was forty

five days. so it just says there have been no clinical tests. but then why is methadone use in many countries to treat drug addicts. there is such a therapy what is it based on so well say in the us they have no federal regulation about this. well it varies from state to state right yes it varies from state to state as a matter of fact it's an experiment in russia we to conduct experiments on here however our consolidated position is that methadone therapy is inefficient russia i'm sorry i just wanted to say that ukraine belarus and the baltic states approved the use of methadone treatment our colleagues from these countries say the situation there changed for the worse in the number of drug addicts has grown. russia is known for its tough measures when it comes to them. there is much talk

about plans to introduce a compulsive treatment of drug addiction as it used to be back in the soviet times . it is also said that compulsive medical examination will be introduced to for instance of students is that true are you preparing such. and you know it's not true by the way speaking of tough measures against narcotic trunks we are alleging be kind in terms of the toughness and systemic character of measures taken against illegal drug trade but which is accountable but with a lot of. behind who. europe in the united states growing sunscreen of the united states has a school act and anyone who sells something schools serve them three hundred feet or so from school are subject to bigger responsibility for the two or three fold even that means those drugs. not necessarily to children just as long as there's

still something there russian law serious responsibility stuart's if this was fully aware of what he was going to sell obviously all the suspects say they were not aware that yes we're compulsive treatment and as a head of the agency i can assure you with my full responsibility that we have no such plans it's got it it will let us live even with your recent campaign against spices. or herbal smoking blends caused quite a stir recently why did you choose to pay such an attention to them. well i have to admit it was not are can paint what i mean is it was not launched by the federal drug control service we are trying to work with the public so channel to stage their campaign but in reported about this problem rooted in our society. spices appeared in our markets no longer and became popular its very quickly our legislation failed to quickly adapt itself to combine listing new horrible smoking

blends in long narcotic substances however now this decision has been made and as you may know the on december thirty first governmental decree was adopted then yes that is just selling off herbal smoke and blends under the threat of prime and old people. it would put us through those of the little news of this essentially you're responding to the situation yes you know i must see our thank you to the public journalists when there is having drawn attention to the problem should eventually prompt passing of the bills. thank you very much i can only hope you respond promptly to problems in the future because it's common knowledge that swindlers are often faster in their trades than those who combat them. thanks to our systemic approach and political will thank you very much for being with us and just a reminder that my guest here in the studio today was the head of the russian federal drug control center and that's the finale for all of us here who will be

back with more first time comments on what's going on in an outside rush until then stay on r.t. and take care.

police in the caregivers capital bishkek clashed with anti-government protesters

accused by the country's interim leader of trying to stage a coup live i mean issue has been fired while protest leaders placed under arrest. wildfires continue raging across central russia during the biggest heat wave on the record leaving at least fifty dead thousands remain homeless with whole villages turned into a ghost town. and five british citizens extradited to greece face trial over the stabbing of a man in crete and they accuse their government of turning its back on the critics say the european or rest warren system under which they have been transferred allows them to be sent for trial abroad with minimal evidence. up next debate not for the faint hearted peter lavelle's interview show cross talk coming your way here on r t. if you can. stay.

alone and welcome to cross talk i'm peter lavelle in one thousand nine hundred six the late samuel huntington suggested that post cold war conflicts would occur because of cultural rather than ideological differences is culture more powerful than ideology today with the rise of china the islamic world and emerging economies is the world prone to more clashes particularly with the west. particularly. to discuss of huntington's thesis stands today i'm joined by richard bullet in tel aviv and author and history professor at columbia university in washington we have shereen hunter she's a visiting professor at the center for muslim christian understanding at georgetown university in paris we go to john laughlin of the institute of democracy in cooperation and another member of our crosstalk team on the hunger all right.