Russia

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Federal Drug Service reported that over 175 kilograms of heroin have been seized in a year long police operation in Naberezhniye Chelny. The record haul points to failed drug-trafficking efforts by coalition forces in Afghanistan.

 

For the past four years, Russian police have been on the trail of a transnational drug-trafficking ring that has tentacles penetrating deep into Russia. This week, the sting operation, codenamed ‘Operation Cartel,’ made a spectacular haul.

 

Viktor Ivanov, Federal Drug Control Service chief, gave details of the final moments of the operation that focused on the Volga and Northwestern regions.

 

"A BMW X-5 with Russian license plates was stopped in Naberezhniye Chelny on the morning of November 23, and 90 kilograms of 50 percent pure heroin was seized from hiding places (inside of the vehicle)," Ivanov told reporters in Moscow on Tuesday.

 

Another 85 kilograms of heroin was subsequently seized in the course of police searches at the suspects' apartments.In total, “more than 175 kilograms of heroin" was seized, he said. To put into scale the significance of the operation, 750 kilograms of heroin were "tracked down and destroyed" in the previous year, the official added.

 

As the Russian anti-drug chief reported about the success of his agency he once again pointed out the problems it was facing both at home and especially abroad as the failed coalition policy in Afghanistan allows this country to remain world’s top illegal drug producer.

 

Ivanov noted that even though Afghanistan’s opium industry poses a direct threat to the

European Union, the NATO bloc does little to stop it, according to the officials “they cannot work outside the European Union”.

 

Ivanov added that Russia is interested in cooperation with NATO on the problem but NATO still refuses to accredit a representative of the Russian drug enforcement service to its headquarters in Brussels.

 

Ivanov and other Russian officials have repeatedly voiced concern that the flow of drugs from Afghanistan will increase once coalition forces leave the country in 2014.

 

Even without foreign support Russia is trying to deal with the problem. The Federal Anti-drug service has opened an office in Kabul and the information from it allowed for several successful operations, like the Naberezhnye Chelny bust.

 

However, as Ivanov pointed out last year, Russia’s ultimate objective is to set up a special international agency, working in cooperation with the Afghan government and the international organizations like UN, OSCE and CSTO.

 

The agency will fight the international drug cartels responsible for heroin trafficking and eventually could lead to the creation of a stable system for Eurasian anti-drug security, the Russian official stated.

 

A weapons designer at a Russian defence industry enterprise that makes rifles, grenade launchers and other arms was shot dead on a city street in a contract-style killing, law enforcement authorities and media reports said.

 

The deputy chief designer at the research and production facility in Tula, an arms-producing city south of Moscow, was found dead with a bullet wound in his head on Wednesday evening, the federal Investigative Committee said.

 

State television identified the victim as Vyacheslav Trukhachev and said investigators believe the killing may have been related to his job at the Central Sports and Hunting Weapons Research and Design Bureau.

 

Officials did not cite a potential motive, however. Russian business is plagued by corruption and disputes are sometimes resolved through contract killings.

 

Trukhachev was shot while walking home from work on Tula's Red Army Avenue and the killing was captured on a surveillance camera, Interfax news agency quoted a senior regional investigator, Tatyana Sergeyeva, as saying.

 

She said the gunman was not wearing a mask but had fled the scene immediately. It was not clear whether he acted alone or had help. The well-lit street and was not deserted and police were looking for eyewitnesses.

 

Russia's defence industry, the world's second-largest arms exporter, has been under increasing scrutiny since a nearly $100 million corruption scandal implicated former Defence Minister Anatoly Serdyukov. He was dismissed earlier this month .

 

Trukhachev's job involved the design and development of weapons, not sales, Interfax quoted Sergeyeva as saying.

 

Officials at the enterprise where he worked declined to comment.

 

Russia's president fired the country's defense minister Tuesday after his office became embroiled in a controversy involving alleged corrupt property deals, state media reported.

 

Anatoly Serdyukov, a former businessman, had been in charge of the Defense Ministry since early 2007.

 

Putin appointed Sergey Shoigu, a former Emergencies Minister, as the new head of defense, according to Russia's state-owned channel RT.

 

Shoigu, who's been serving as governor of the Moscow region since the summer, was well regarded in his role at the helm of the Emergencies Ministry, the channel said.

 

Russia's Investigation Committee has filed a court case against a company affiliated to the

Defense Ministry, Oboronservis, over the sale of ministry properties, according to RT. Two suspects, Yekaterina Smetanova and her partner Maksim Zakutailo, are accused of aiding illegal sales.

 

Another suspect, Yevgeniya Vasilyeva, is thought to be a former protege of Serdyukov, RT said.

The scandal, which must be embarrassing for the Kremlin, concerns real estate scams involving nearly $100 million, according to state-owned news agency RIA Novosti.

 

"Given the situation that has developed around the Ministry of Defense, in order to create the conditions for an objective investigation of all the issues, I have decided to free the Minister of Defense Serdyukov from office," Putin is quoted as saying by RT.

 

Russia's large military is in the midst of a much-needed modernization program.

Putin urged Shoigu to push forward with the reforms, according to RT, saying he "must continue further dynamic development of the army to ensure the fulfillment of the state arms order and the immense plans of re-equipment of the army."

 

The appointment of Shoigu, a general, in place of Serdyukov, who was Russia's first civilian defense minister, may please senior military figures who've been unsettled by sometimes painful reforms.

 

The modernization program was ordered after Russia's invasion of the former Soviet republic of Georgia in 2008 revealed unexpected weaknesses in its armed forces.

 

A box in which parents can leave their babies anonymously without any legal risk opened Wednesday in a town in northwestern Russia — part of an effort that activists hope will save many young lives.

 

The baby box in Kirishi, an industrial town 60 miles (100 kilometers) east of St. Petersburg, is the tenth such facility in Russia. Experts think that's just a fraction of what is needed.

 

"Even if only one child is saved that way it will be worth it," said Tatiana Sobolevskya, deputy chief of the maternity department of Kirishi's hospital, where the baby box is located. Nikolai Muravlev, a Russian Orthodox priest, came to bless the box and praise it as "island of safety."

 

Once a baby is put in the box, its door closes and a nurse gets alerted by a signal. There are no security cameras so parents can leave their babies anonymously. An information stand next to the box appeals to parents to think over their decision and offers contact numbers for assistance.

 

Kolybel Nadezhdy (Cradle of Hope), a non-government organization that opened the baby box, said it should help attract nationwide attention to the issue. Its head, Yelena Kotova, said more than a dozen babies are abandoned in Russia every month according to official statistics, but she said the real figures are believed to be at least three times higher.

 

Russian police have registered 268 cases of murder of newborn babies by their mothers in 2010-2011, and Russian media have carried regular reports of babies found in garbage containers, forests or snowdrifts. One of the most recent cases was in St. Petersburg in August, when a man found a 3-day-old baby in a plastic bag in the bushes. The boy survived and was soon adopted.

 

Kotova said in her home city of Perm in the Ural Mountains, the bodies of two newborn babies were found on a balcony. A woman who lived there with her other children just felt unable to raise another child, she said.

 

In July, a five-day-old girl was left in a baby box in Perm with a note giving her name, Margarita, and her date of birth. Two more babies were left in baby boxes organized by Russia's Krasnodar region.

 

Russia borrowed the baby box idea from other European countries, where they have become quite numerous in recent years but have also fueled heated discussions. Critics say they infringe on the rights of mothers and children.

 

"A baby box isn't a universal cure, it's a way to attract attention to the problem and to help women," said Galina Murzakayeva, a coordinator for the Kirishi project.