On December 3, Chairman of the Committee on Security and Corruption Control Vasilii
Piskarev
Vasily Ivanovich
held a meeting with the Director of the Drug Control Agency under the President of the Republic of Tajikistan, Sherkhon Salimzoda, in the State Duma.
The issues of cooperation between the two countries in the field of combating drug trafficking were discussed.
During the meeting, Vasilii Piskarev informed Sherkhon Salimzoda about the results of the enlarged meeting of the Committee, where the draft concept of the Russian state anti-drug policy until 2030 and the main directions for improving the legislative regulation of anti-drug activities in the Russian Federation were discussed.
The Chairman of the Committee noted that the issues of combating drug trafficking and improving the anti-drug legislation are being constantly discussed at the inter-parliamentary meetings of parliamentarians from Iran, India, Pakistan, China, Turkey, and neighboring countries.
Vasilii Piskarev indicated the joint position of the delegations of Russia and Turkey at the 62nd Session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs where important resolutions regarding the inadmissibility of liberalization of international anti-drug regimens were adopted in March 2019 as a good example of interaction. “We combined our efforts on the international platform, and this gave a positive result,” the parliamentarian emphasized.
Sherkhon Salimzoda noted that this is his second meeting with Vasilii Piskarev recently. In October, they met on the sidelines of an international meeting in Dushanbe and discussed possible measures under the auspices of the CSTO to counteract the smuggling of heroin across the Afghan-Tajik border. Vasilii Piskarev emphasized that ”the length of the border there is quite long — more than 1,300 km, and it is necessary to do everything possible together to stop the penetration of drugs into our countries at the very beginning”.
As a positive example of effective anti-drug work, the Chairman of the Committee named the experience of Iran, where about 800 tons of narcotic drugs are seized per year. If these drugs had not been intercepted they could have appeared in Tajikistan and Russia.
Vasilii Piskarev noted the need not only to increase activity in joint operational work to identify the criminal activities of drug dealers and to cut the smuggling of Afghan drugs, but also to speed up work on harmonization of the laws of our countries and improvement of legal regulation, including counteracting the legalization of drug trafficking payments using transactions by electronic means of payment, as well as cryptocurrencies, and counteracting the spread of drugs and inducing their use via the Internet, especially among minors.
The Chairman of the Committee reminded Sherkhon Salimzoda that the joint work with Tajik parliamentarians in the anti-drug field intensified in 2017. Following the results of the International Conference “Parliamentarians against Drugs”, a unanimous decision was made to strengthen inter-parliamentary cooperation to harmonize legislation. “Today, it is necessary, within the framework of parliamentary control, to ensure the fulfillment of previously assumed obligations by the relevant bodies,” he stressed.
