RUSSIAN GRANNIES SELL THEIR DRUGS

AT first sight they look like typical Russian grandmothers as they waddle
over the icy pavements. But the grey-haired babushkas in the narrow streets
around the Lubyanka, the headquarters of the former KGB, have a more
sinister purpose: they are dealing in drugs.

Unable to live on their meagre state pensions, scores of otherwise
respectable old people have gone into business to feed Russia's growing
drug habit. Their medicines, ranging from painkillers and sleeping pills to
anaesthetics, are bought by addicts too poor to afford heroin and used to
make powerful narcotics such as "vint", a favourite local stimulant.

Natalya, 61, a former doctor who says she has received no pension since
November, was unrepentant as she stood in a pedestrian subway last week,
selling morphine. "I do it because I need the money. I have two children
studying at university to support," she said. "The addicts buy from us
because it's cheaper. And they know we can't do a runner with the money."

Elderly pushers make little effort to conceal their trade, which can earn
them up to £150 a day - a huge sum in Russia where the average pension is
£30 a month.

There is no shortage of potential buyers: some estimates put the number of
drug addicts in the former Soviet republics at more than 9m, six times as
many as in 1991.

Some police officers have been bribed by the pushers to turn a blind eye.
However, in an apparent move to curb the trade, at least 10 babushkas have
recently been sentenced to three years in jail for drug trafficking. Daily
raids have become commonplace.

At the nearby Kitai Gorod police station up to 50 elderly pushers are
brought in every day. They are searched, held for a few hours and usually
released after paying a £30 fine.