The Federal Drug Control Service of the Russian Federation or FSKN (in Russian: Федеральная служба Российской Федерации по контролю за оборотом наркотиков, ФСКН России) was a federal

law enforcement agency A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for law enforcement within a specific jurisdiction through the employment and deployment of law enforcement officers and their resources. The most common type of law enforcement ...

of executive authority authorized to combat illicit drug trafficking. It was responsible for drafting state policy, legal regulation, control and monitoring in combating the trafficking of drugs, psychotropic substances, and their precursors. It was commonly known as The Drugs Police (Наркополиция). The FSKN shared

concurrent jurisdiction Concurrent jurisdiction exists where two or more courts from different systems simultaneously have jurisdiction over a specific case. United States In the United States, state courts are presumed to have concurrent jurisdiction in federal matt ...

with the Federal Security Service of Russia and the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD). The FSKN had sole responsibility for coordinating and pursuing Russian drug investigations abroad, especially in

Central Asia Central Asia is a region of Asia consisting of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. The countries as a group are also colloquially referred to as the "-stans" as all have names ending with the Persian language, Pers ...

. On 5 April 2016, the Federal Drug Control Service was dissolved, and its functions and authorities were transferred to Main Drugs Control Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

History

The first Anti-Drugs Independent Russian Agency was launched on 24 September 2002 under the name "The State Committee for Combat the Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation" (UNON MVD). On 11 March 2003, the agency was transformed into the State Committee of Russian Federation to Monitor the Trafficking of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (GOSNARCOCONTROL). That organization eventually became the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia. Viktor Cherkesov was appointed as the chairman of the committee. With around 40,000 employees and a budget of over US$800,000, the Committee surpassed the budget and staff numbers of the abolished Federal Tax Police Service of the Russian Federation. The committee began its operations on 1 July 2003. On 6 June 2003, the

Duma A duma () is a Russian assembly with advisory or legislative functions. The term ''boyar duma'' is used to refer to advisory councils in Russia from the 10th to 17th centuries. Starting in the 18th century, city dumas were formed across Russia ...

approved the Regulations on the State Committee of Russian Federation for the control of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances. On 9 March 2004, The Russian Federal Drug Control Service was renamed to the Federal Service of the Russian Federation for the control of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances and on 28 July 2004, was renamed the Russian Federal Service for Drug Control. On 12 May 2008, the President of Russia dismissed Viktor Cherkesov as Director of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service. On 15 May 2008, President

Dmitry Medvedev Dmitry Anatolyevich Medvedev (born 14 September 1965) is a Russian politician and lawyer who has served as Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia since 2020. Medvedev was also President of Russia between 2008 and 2012 and Prime Mini ...

appointed the former

KGB The Committee for State Security (, ), abbreviated as KGB (, ; ) was the main security agency of the Soviet Union from 1954 to 1991. It was the direct successor of preceding Soviet secret police agencies including the Cheka, Joint State Polit ...

general Viktor Ivanov as a Director of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service. On 5 April 2016, the FSKN was replaced by the Main Directorate for Drugs Control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

Structure

*State Anti-Drugs Committee (Государственный антинаркотический комитет) **Federal Drug Control Service ***Directorate for Analytical Coordination ***Operative Directorate ***Operation and Search Directorate ***Directorate for coordination of Operative Activities ****Directorate for combating against Drug Crimes in Transportation ****Directorate for combating against illegal activities in narcotics sphere ****Directorate for combating against Money laundering ***Department for International Cooperation ***Investigative Department ***Department for Special Technic Activities *** Department for Internal Security *** Directorate for Special Communications (Wiretapping and eavesdropping) ***Directorate for Special Purpose (

Spetsnaz SpetsnazThe term is borrowed from rus, спецназ, p=spʲɪtsˈnas; abbreviation for or 'Special Purpose Military Units'; or () are special forces in many post-Soviet states. Historically, this term referred to the Soviet Union's Spet ...

Directorate) ****"Grom" Unit («Гром») – A special unit designed to fight against illegal drugs crimes and Narco-MafiaRussian Source
/ref> ***Medical Directorate ***Directorate for Technic Support

Tasks and missions

The main tasks of Russian Federal Drug Control Service were: *monitoring the trafficking of drugs; *detection, prevention, suppression, detection and preliminary investigation of crimes attributed to the investigative jurisdiction of Federal Drug Control Service of Russia; *coordination of enforcement authorities to combat drug trafficking; *establishment and maintenance of a unified data bank on issues related to drug trafficking, as well as to combat their illegal trafficking.

Day of Drug Control Authorities

On 16 February 2008, a Decree of

Russian President The president of Russia, officially the president of the Russian Federation (), is the executive head of state of Russia. The president is the chair of the Federal State Council and the supreme commander-in-chief of the Russian Armed Forces. I ...

Vladimir Putin Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin (born 7 October 1952) is a Russian politician and former intelligence officer who has served as President of Russia since 2012, having previously served from 2000 to 2008. Putin also served as Prime Minister of Ru ...

announced an official professional holiday on 11 March – the Day of Drug Control Authorities.

Criticism

Criticism of the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia stemmed from legal concerns. For example, in 2004, the use of the analgesic medication

ketamine Ketamine is a cyclohexanone-derived general anesthetic and NMDA receptor antagonist with analgesic and hallucinogenic properties, used medically for anesthesia, depression, and pain management. Ketamine exists as its S- (esketamine) a ...

was explicitly forbidden for use in veterinary clinics after it had been scheduled as a drug of abuse. Veterinarians, to alleviate the suffering of animals, broke the law as a result of a conflict between the legal and moral implications. The most "sensational" case was the process of Alexandra Duque. The Federal Drug Control Service also drew criticism for allegedly rigging the results of substance inspections (for example, identifying UR-144 as

JWH-018 JWH-018 (1-pentyl-3-(1-naphthoyl)indole, NA-PIMO or AM-678) is an analgesic chemical from the naphthoylindole family that acts as a full agonist at both the CB1 and CB2 cannabinoid receptors, with some selectivity for CB2. It produces effe ...

and finding drugs that were never there), improper scheduling (such as qualifying

Modafinil Modafinil, sold under the brand name Provigil among others, is a central nervous system (CNS) stimulant and wakefulness-promoting agent, eugeroic (wakefulness promoter) medication used primarily to treat narcolepsy, a sleep disorder characteri ...

as a

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

substitute) and using very vague and unspecific drug analog laws.

Directors

In popular culture

Two films were created by the Russian government about the FSKN: * '' Tiski'' (2007) by Valery Todorovsky, starring Maksim Matveev, Fyodor Bondarchuk and Aleksey Serebryakov * '' Antidur'' (2007) by Vladimir Shchegolkov ; starring Vladimir Turchinsky and Dmitry Dyuzhev

References

External links

FSKN official website

Official YouTube channel
{{Government of the Russian Federation 2003 establishments in Russia Drug control law enforcement agencies Defunct government agencies of Russia Government agencies established in 2003 Specialist law enforcement agencies of Russia Drug policy of Russia Ministry of Internal Affairs (Russia)

History

Structure

Tasks and missions

Day of Drug Control Authorities

Criticism

Directors

See also

In popular culture

References

Further reading

English

Russian

External links