Afghan Drugs Flooding Russia (Wash. Times)

[beetbox]

Afghan drugs flooding Russia

Aug. 30, 2005 at 1:49PM

Russia is being swamped by a flood of drugs from Afghanistan.
      A Russian security official said Tuesday the country's security agencies had to "adapt" if they wanted to curb the massive drug inflow from Afghanistan, RIA Novosti news agency reported.
      "I will not challenge the political decision to withdraw Russian troops from the Tajik-Afghan border, but the pullout has led to the emergence of large batches of illicit drugs on the market," said Alexander Mikhailov, a senior official with the Federal Service for Control over the Turnover of Drugs.
      Mikhailov said Afghanistan's drug output was growing by 20 percent-30 percent every year, which meant that the narcotics flow out of the country was also increasing.
      Mikhailov said security bodies had stepped up activities to seize drugs.
      "We used to seize an average of from one to five kilograms of drugs every month, but this month we have confiscated several batches weighing 120-130 kilograms (264-286 pounds) each," he said.

http://www.washingtontimes.com/upi/20050830-115211-6645r.htm

[leveymg]

1. What is this, the Afghan-Russian War II?

Are the CIA and the Saudis back at work with the Mujahaddin trying to further destabilize the Kremlin's hold over Central Asia? Payback for getting booted from Uzbekistan? Just WTF is going on here?

[wli]

2. Russia's probably best off building a wall to control the border.

Bushler's probably trying to instigate Afghan-Russian War II, and he'll very probably fail, or otherwise provoke far broader retaliation than anticipated.