RUSSIAN DRUG OFFICIAL CRITICIZES U.S. FOR AFGHAN HEROIN SURGE

MOSCOW -- Calling attention to a growing sore spot between Washington and
Moscow, Russia's newly appointed top drug cop said the U.S. could do more
to reduce the flow of heroin from Afghanistan.

Gen. Viktor Cherkessov, whose appointment this spring to head Russia's huge
new drug-enforcement agency signals Moscow's new emphasis on the problem,
said in an interview recently that drug production in Afghanistan has
increased "catastrophically." Asked if the U.S. is doing enough to help
stem the problem, he chose his words carefully, saying that America isn't
using its vast resources "to the fullest extent" to curtail production of
Afghan opium.

Since the collapse of the Soviet Union, illegal drug use in Russia has
skyrocketed, and heroin from Afghanistan is a favorite. That, in turn, has
fueled explosive epidemics of HIV and other blood-borne viruses, such as
hepatitis C.

During its last year in power, Afghanistan's Taliban regime virtually
eliminated opium-poppy production, though this may have been an attempt to
boost prices by restricting supply rather than a genuine antidrug effort.
The Taliban profited from the drug trade, according to international drug
experts.

But under U.S.-led occupation, Afghanistan's poppy output has surged again,
accounting for more than three-quarters of world production. Gen.
Cherkessov projects that this year's harvest will total 4,000 tons, up from
the 3,422 tons that the United Nations Office of Drugs and Crime says
Afghanistan produced last year, its second-biggest harvest ever.
Afghanistan produces virtually all the heroin sold in Russia and more than
three-quarters of the heroin sold in Europe. Russia is a transit route for
heroin headed to Western Europe.

U.S. intelligence knew long before Sept. 11, 2001, that opium puts money
into the coffers of al Qaeda and other terrorist groups. But over the past
year, the U.S. hasn't curtailed production -- a situation about which
Russian officials privately express outrage. In the interview, Gen.
Cherkessov also derided U.N. efforts to encourage Afghan farmers to switch
to other crops, saying no other crop matches opium's profit potential. He
said the international community and the U.S. should work with Afghan
forces to conduct military operations to stop opium production.

The general said he recently met with the U.S. ambassador to Russia
together with a high-level group of American drug experts. Officials at the
U.S. Embassy in Moscow declined to comment on the meeting, but a
law-enforcement specialist there said that the U.S. is "providing
equipment, vehicles, technical assistance and specialized training to
antinarcotics units based near the Russian-Kazakh border in order to
strengthen Russian law enforcement's counternarcotics capability." The
official said the measures are aimed partly at stemming drug traffic from
Afghanistan.

Gen. Cherkessov is a key member of President Vladimir Putin's inner circle
of power. He and Mr. Putin studied together at Leningrad State University
and, like the president, Gen. Cherkessov was a KGB officer. He headed up
the Leningrad investigative department and hounded dissidents. A tall,
husky man with silver hair, the 53-year-old is smooth but considered very
tough.

His newly created State Committee for the Control of the Circulation of
Narcotic and Psychotropic Substances has about 40,000 employees, and the
bulk of its investigators come from the newly disbanded tax police. Gen.
Cherkessov says he plans to exploit their financial expertise to attack
drug lords through their money-laundering and other financial dealings.
While his investigators will focus on narco-mafia kingpins, he said,
ordinary police will continue "without decrease" to arrest and jail
small-time users and dealers.

- -- Jeanne Whalen contributed to this article.