UN DRUG CHIEF URGES RUSSIA TO TAKE ACTION

The UN's top drug control official called on Russia on Friday to take
action to stem demand for drugs, especially heroin, within its borders and
said he is concerned about the planned removal of Russian forces from the
Afghan-Tajik border, where they are engaged in anti-drug trafficking
operations.

Russia has one of the highest levels of opiate abuse in the world, at
around 2.1 percent of those aged 15 to 64, or about 2 million people,
according to a new United Nations World Drug Report presented in Moscow on
Friday by the official, Antonio Maria Costa.

About 1 million of those use heroin, a figure four times as high as in the
next biggest heroin markets in Europe, Britain and Italy, the report said.
As many as 3 million to 4 million drug users live in Russia, it said.

"This report confirms the severity of the addiction problem, especially
addiction to heroin," Costa said.

The UN report said the use of heroin appears to be falling worldwide. Abuse
of cocaine is growing, though more slowly than in previous years, and the
use of cannabis is also becoming more widespread.

The report also said opium poppy production in Afghanistan is booming after
a sharp reduction in 2001. Much of Afghanistan's heroin is trafficked
through Central Asia and Russia to Europe.

Moscow announced plans last month to hand over control of the Tajik-Afghan
border, which is largely manned by Russian border guards, to Tajik forces
at Tajikistan's request. Costa said he hopes the international community
will find a way to make sure the border remains secured.

"We obviously are rather concerned that the Russian troops are being moved
elsewhere," he said.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, joining Costa at a news conference Friday,
called for a more "systematic" multinational approach to fighting the
production and trafficking of Afghan heroin. He did not give details.

Costa praised a recent Russian decision to ease penalties for drug
possession, saying the revised law "appreciated the drug problem not as a
law enforcement only but also as a health problem, and therefore [is] a
very major commitment to working toward the problem from the demand side
and not only from the supply side."

He also said that although UN figures through 2002 show heroin addiction in
Russia rising, new Health and Social Development Ministry statistics he has
seen show that trend reversing.

"Even in Russia in the past 12 months there has been a decline in the
actual number of heroin addicts," he said.

But, he added: "We have to verify that. We don't have this sort of
information."

Health and Social Development Ministry officials were not immediately
available for comment Friday.

Costa also met Thursday with Russian Orthodox Patriarch Alexy II and Arkady
Volsky, head of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs, in
an effort to get the church and business sector involved in anti-drug
initiatives.