Isabel Gorst
Financial Times
May 24, 2010
Moscow has criticised US-led forces in Afghanistan for failing to eradicate heroin production and warned at the weekend that drug smuggling was endangering Russia’s national security.
- A d v e r t i s e m e n t
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Russia says production of heroin in Afghanistan has increased almost tenfold since the US-led invasion to oust the Taliban began in 2001.
As drug smuggling across central Asia’s porous borders has soared, Russia has emerged as the world’s biggest per capita user of heroin, consuming about 35 tonnes of the drug a year.
The US has rejected Russia’s call to destroy poppy crops, saying that alienated farmers might join the insurgency.
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