PUTIN URGES ACTION AGAINST DRUGS

Combined Reports President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday that Russia's
fight against drug addiction had failed to yield results and called for
more action to stem the rising problem.

"We have to admit honestly that the state's efforts haven't been
effective," Putin told Cabinet members in televised remarks.

Deputy Prime Minister Valentina Matviyenko said at the meeting that 72
percent of registered drug users are under 30 and that "drug addicts are
getting younger," Interfax reported.

There are about 497,000 drug addicts now registered in Russia, with 59,000
of those from this year alone, she said.

However, other estimates have put the number of drug addicts in Russia at
more than 3 million -- nearly 2.1 percent of the population. Prevention
programs are nearly nonexistent, and other social programs for young people
have also closed, deprived of the generous funding they received in Soviet
times.

Matviyenko said the amount now budgeted for combating illegal drugs and
drug addiction -- 1.6 billion rubles ($50.7 million) for 2002-04 -- was not
sufficient.

Much of Russia's drugs come via the loosely controlled borders with former
Soviet Central Asia, but Putin said security problems should not be used as
an excuse for failing to fight drug addiction in Russia.

"It doesn't mean we have the right to blame these objective circumstances
in the fight against drug addiction," he said.

Putin said putting up a fence on the borders with Central Asian countries
would be prohibitively expensive and that "you still cannot seal the
steppe," Interfax reported.

"Drug dealers will pass where there are no checkpoints," Putin said. "They
will simply be dragging this stuff through the steppe and that's it."

Interior Minister Boris Gryzlov called for tougher penalties against drug
dealers at the meeting, ORT television said. According to police
statistics, every second drug dealer who is arrested is acquitted by the
courts, he said.

Putin ordered the government to draft viable measures to crack down on drug
abuse and report on the proposals within one month, ORT said.

Meanwhile, in Tajikistan, the main transit country in Central Asia for
heroin from Afghanistan, authorities confirmed Wednesday that a district
chief from the Security Ministry had been arrested for alleged drug
trafficking after 16 kilograms of heroin was found in his car. Three other
ministry employees have been detained for drug trafficking since last
month, the Security Ministry press service said.