1 February, 2006

By the editorial staff of burtsev.ru

Scholar at the Institute of World Economics and International Relations in Moscow confirms important facts about heroin trafficking Russian military.

Several major websites recently published the five-part report “Narco Business in the Context of Counter-Terrorist Operation” by Dr. Igor Khokhlov of the prestigious Institute Of World Economy and International Relations (Moscow, Russia). Khokhlov's report confirms that Russian military has been involved in trafficking Afghan heroin since the beginning of 1990s and provides several important details. Our translation of relevant passages follows.

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In the beginning of the 1990s the area of Osh (The Osh Region) became the key transit point for heroin trafficking from the Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Region of Tajikistan to Bishkek, Tashkent, and Almaty and from there to the eastern parts of the Russian Federation. This last leg of the trafficking utilized both land and air transportation. The latter was facilitated by the regular flight routs from Bishkek, Tashkent, and Almaty to the administrative centers of the Urals, the Volga Region, Siberia, and the Far East. These routs played the key role in heroin trafficking to Russia...Also actively used were the Russian military-transport planes which landed in Chkalovsk airfield near Moscow.

Presently, these routs, especially by air, have lost their importance due, above all, to more active law enforcement on the part of Russia in the airports of destination and also because of the significantly tougher control over the cargo transported by military planes.”

End quote.

This is Dr. Khokhlov's list of heroin trafficking routs.

Afghani Badakhshan – Gorno-Badakhshan, Tajikistan – Osh, Kyrgyzstan – Sumgait, Azerbaijan - Bosnia, Croatia – Western Europe;

Badakhshan – Osh – Near Volga – Moscow – Estonia – Sweden – USA;

Badakhshan – Dushanbe – Bombory, Georgia – Kobuleti – Ajaria – Turkey;

Khorog – Murgab – Osh – Ganja, Azerbaijan – Moscow – Sialiai, Lithuania – Europe;

Mazari-Sharif – Termez, Uzbekistan – Shali, Chechnya – Nakhichevan, Azerbaijan – Turkey;

Mazari-Sharif – Termez – Samarkand - Ganja – Dagestan – Shali – Moscow - Sialiai;

Mazari-Sharif – Termez – Samarkand - Ganja – Dagestan – Karachai-Cherkesia – Abkhazia – Romania.