Russia seeks NATO assistance

Lavrov has called on NATO to co-operate with Moscow to stop the activity of illegal drugs Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has called on NATO to co-operate with Moscow to stop the activity of illegal drugs coming from Afghanistan.

“We call on NATO representatives to have common approaches to preventing the drug business and terrorism coming from Afghanistan”, Lavrov said today during an anti-drug conference in Moscow, attended by members of the Russian parliament. According to a report by the UN drug agency, UNODC, on Afghan farmland, has been planted last year at 328,000 hectares with opium plants, registering a new record. Opium plant is processed chemically to produce heroin and other synthetic opioids for medical use and illegal drug trade. “This year has been harvested about 9,000 tonnes of opium, whose first item is heroin”, according to the UN report.

NATO said military troops are committed to Afghanistan to fight the radical Islamic movement. Drug smugglers transport their product from Afghanistan through Russia and the former Soviet republics.