The Washington Post has a fantastic article today on Russia's year-old federal anti-drug service. Susan Glasser of the Post's foreign service describes how the Russian version of the drug war is even worse than what we have at home.

Formed a year ago to bring the full force of the country's law enforcement to bear against a growing drug crisis, the agency -- headed by a close friend of President Vladimir Putin from the KGB -- has an army of 40,000 at its disposal, four times larger than the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

But at a time when Russia is reeling from terror attacks that have killed 1,000 people in the past two years, critics point to the new agency as a study in misplaced priorities and questionable tactics.

Resources that could have been devoted to fighting big-time drug traffickers or cracking down on Chechen guerrillas have gone instead to campaigns against veterinarians, physicians and dentists, vendors of popular T-shirts bearing images of marijuana leaves and bookstores that sell tomes on the medicinal uses of illegal narcotics.[...]

As bad as Russia's drug war is, though, it's important to note that many of these claims could be made about the drug war at home. The U.S. has its own campaign against pain-management providers and patients and imprisons legal businessmen like Tommy Chong. Recall that The 9/11 Commission Report contained some compelling language showing the "war on drugs" has harmed the war on terror by diverting funds, personnel and resources from the latter to the former.

So how is the Russian drug war faring?

Many of the drug agency's victories have been symbolic, such as persuading a court to declare that leaflets urging a change in Russian policy were illegal pro-drug "advertising" and seeking the closure of clean needle programs aimed at fighting the country's growing AIDS epidemic.

In a rare interview, [agency director Viktor] Cherkesov acknowledged certain "mistakes" and "difficulties" as his agency has begun its work, but said most of them were public relations issues. "Society doesn't always understand what we are doing and why," he said.

Thank you Viktor. Remember, though, that as you kill and imprison more and more of these ignorant members of "society," simply claiming that mistakes were made is not enough.

Post article is here.