Russia blames NATO for heroin surge from Afghanistan

In the BBC News article, Russia blames NATO for heroin surge from Afghanistan, Rupert Wingfield-Hayes discusses how Russia has placed the blame on NATO for their country's high drug problem. There are at least 30,000 heroin related deaths in Russia each year, compared to about 2,000 per year in the United States. Victor Ivanov, head of Russia's federal drug control agency stated that these high numbers are due to the Obama administration's decision to end a military drive destroying the opium fields in Afghanistan. The US pulled troops out of this operation because this practice was causing the opium farmers who had lost their jobs to join the Taliban. Ivanov said that this decision has caused a heavy flow of cheap heroin into Russia and Central Asia.


This article relates to several concepts we have discussed in Comparative Government. Russia's decision to blame the Obama administration and NATO for their country's drug problem may cause the people of Russia to question their government's legitimacy. It is impossible, based on the high numbers of heroin addicts and heroin related deaths, that this problems has arisen solely because of the Obama administration's decision to stop destroying Afghanistan's poppy fields. The real cause of this problem is probably due to the government's failure to instate stricter public policies regarding drug laws and stricter control of their borders.


Photo credit: BBC News