home » reservoirs » The history of the FSKN: how drug control turned into a drug cartel. New FSKN: the State Duma called for radical measures in the fight against drug addiction What is the operational department in the FSKN

The history of the FSKN: how drug control turned into a drug cartel. New FSKN: the State Duma called for radical measures in the fight against drug addiction What is the operational department in the FSKN

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev has reshuffled the leadership of several regional departments of the Federal Drug Control Service, dismissing seven heads of the Federal Drug Control Service.

On September 24, 2002, in accordance with the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, the State Committee for Combating Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation was established.

On March 11, 2003, the State Committee for Combating Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation was transformed into the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Controlling the Circulation of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (Gosnarkokontrol of Russia) by the Decree of the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin.

On March 9, 2004, the State Drug Control Service of Russia was renamed into the Federal Service of the Russian Federation for Controlling the Circulation of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances.

July 28, 2004 The Federal Service of the Russian Federation for the Control of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances was renamed the Federal Service of the Russian Federation for the Control of Drugs by Presidential Decree.

The Federal Drug Control Service of the Russian Federation (FSKN of Russia) is a federal executive body responsible for the development of state policy, legal regulation, control and supervision in the field of trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors, as well as in the field of countering their illicit trafficking.

By a presidential decree of July 28, 2004, the maximum staffing of the Service and its territorial bodies was set at 40,000.

According to the instructions "On the procedure for recruitment, testing when hiring, appointment to positions, concluding contracts for service, dismissal from positions and assignment of special ranks in the bodies for controlling the circulation of narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances", approved by order of the Federal Drug Control Service dated 8 October 2009, citizens of the Russian Federation who have reached the age of 18, but not older than 40, who speak Russian, who are capable of their personal and business qualities, existing professional education and state of health to ensure the fulfillment of the functions assigned to the drug control authorities.

In order to recruit citizens for service in the drug control bodies, they are selected and studied.

The selection and study of citizens for employment in the drug control authorities is carried out by the leadership of the drug control authorities and their structural divisions in cooperation with the Personnel Department of the Personnel Department of the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia, personnel and educational work units of territorial bodies, organizations of the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia.

The study of citizens for admission to service in drug control bodies, including citizens from among employees of federal executive bodies that provide for law enforcement service, and military personnel for admission to service in drug control bodies in the order of transfer, is divided into:

a) preliminary study, which consists in studying the business, professional and personal (personal) qualities of citizens selected for service in drug control bodies, as well as information and documents submitted by citizens for admission to service in drug control bodies;

b) medical examination of citizens in order to determine their health suitability for service in drug control bodies;

c) verification of information and documents submitted by citizens, the presence of which may prevent admission to the service in the drug control bodies.

For a citizen entering the service of the drug control authorities for the first time, a test lasting from three to six months may be established, depending on the level of his professional training and the position to which he is appointed.

During the test, further study of the business, professional and personal (personal) qualities of the trainee is carried out. During the probation, the trainee performs duties and enjoys the rights in accordance with the position he fills and the terms of the employment contract.

Trainees hired by the drug control authorities who do not have the skills and abilities to perform the job duties stipulated by the job description for their position are mentored.

Based on the results of the test, the immediate supervisor draws up a certificate of test results. In the event that the probation period has expired, and the citizen continues to serve, he is considered to have passed the probation.

The material was prepared on the basis of information from open sources

The experts compared the statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Federal Drug Control Service. The police are ahead in the number of solved crimes, the Federal Drug Control Service in the volume of seized drugs. Although departments compete, they focus on different areas

An employee of the Federal Drug Control Service during the detention of visitors to the drug den (Photo: Gennady Khamelyanin/TASS)

Reporting data

Experts from the St. Petersburg Institute for Law Enforcement Problems analyzed the official statistics of drug-related crimes and compared the work of the Federal Drug Control Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs. It is these two departments that are responsible in Russia for the fight against drugs, and in the conditions of the economic crisis they are forced to publicly prove the effectiveness of their work, the authors of the study note.

Each department, within its competence, is obliged to assist in the detection and suppression of any crimes, however, duplication of functions inevitably leads to their competition. Reporting indicators serve as the main means of competition, the researchers state. Statistical indicators related to disclosure and other performance characteristics form the basis of each agency's annual and quarterly performance reports.

In Russia, to record crimes, criminal cases and the criminals themselves, special statistical primary records are filled out. With the exception of the names and surnames of defendants in criminal cases, IPP employees received access to this data thanks to the assistance of the "open government" and the Prosecutor General's Office, IPP sociologist Alexei Knorre explained to RBC.

Departmental Articles

Institute employees studied 535 thousand drug crimes (qualified under articles 228-234 of the Criminal Code)for 2013-2014. Almost two-thirds of them were identified by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, a little more than a third by the Federal Drug Control Service, and only half a percent are accounted for by other departments, including the FSB and the Investigative Committee, the authors of the study specify. The ratio between the Federal Drug Control Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs changes if we study the statistics for certain types of crimes and regions.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs registers 75.6% of crimes under Art. 228 of the Criminal Code (possession of drugs without the purpose of sale, most often imputed to drug addicts). The Federal Drug Control Service has an advantage in cases under articles of the Criminal Code 228.2 (violation of the rules for the circulation of narcotic drugs or psychotropic substances), 228.3 (acquisition, storage or transportation of precursors of narcotic drugs), 232 (organization or maintenance of brothels) and 233 (illegal issuance or forgery of documents for the right to receive drugs).

The distribution of seized types of drugs is approximately the same in the statistics of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Federal Drug Control Service, with the exception of anabolic steroids and sibutramine, which the Federal Drug Control Service officers seize in large quantities, and the police almost never register.

The amount of drugs confiscated from the Federal Drug Control Service is on average two to three times greater than that from the Ministry of Internal Affairs. This is due to the fact that in almost all cases, in the total volume of drugs confiscated by the Federal Drug Control Service, there are individual crimes with a very high mass of seized.

On average, FSKN officers seize 2-3 times more drugs. But this difference is large in relative terms, and small in absolute terms, the authors of the study emphasize. Thus, employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs seize an average of 1 g of narcotic substances, and employees of the Federal Drug Control Service - about 2 years.

D Director of the Federal Drug Control Service Viktor Ivanov in the spring, commenting on rumors about a possible reorganization of his department, said that the Ministry of Internal Affairs has a higher rate of detentions of privates drug users , but in the field of view of the Federal Drug Control Service - large suppliers and distributors of drugs. “90% of all wholesale drug shipments are seized by the Federal Drug Control Service,” Ivanov emphasized. The FSKN has very large batches of seized drugs in its assets, but the bulk, more than half of the crimes, consists of batches in which the mass of the largest drug is several grams, the authors of the study do not agree.

Number of seizures - the number of crimes where this drug was the main drug

Regional difference

In the regions, the situation can vary greatly, both in terms of the specific number of drug crimes, and in which of the departments - the Federal Drug Control Service or the Ministry of Internal Affairs - registers the majority of drug crimes. In Ingushetia, Karelia, Pskov, Magadan and Sakhalin regions, the Federal Drug Control Service clearly dominates in the registration of drug crimes. In Moscow, St. Petersburg, Sevastopol, Crimea and the Sverdlovsk region and others - the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

Apparently, there is a connection between the population of the region and the share of crimes recorded by the Ministry of Internal Affairs, the authors of the study suggest.

Police are more likely to catch people with drugs in densely populated areas. Where there are fewer residents, the Federal Drug Control Service has an advantage.

The study shows that in large cities there are more situations when police officers who are not specialized in the fight against drugs stop random suspicious citizens for searches and seize drugs from them, while the constant work of FSKN operatives allows them to find drugs purposefully. Knorre thinks twhat explanation is plausible.

departmental competition

In 2015, in connection with the reduction of public spending and the project of reorganization of control and supervisory bodies, the abolition of the Federal Drug Control Service was repeatedly discussed in the media, and competition between departments took the form of a public debate. The Ministry of Internal Affairs showed statistics, pointing to two-thirds of all drug-related crimes solved by the police, as well as the wider possibilities of a large department. Ivanov spoke about the incompatibility of the budgets and staff of the two departments and the different tasks.

The case of confrontation between the Federal Drug Control Service and the Ministry of Internal Affairs in Tatarstan became loud. Here, investigators of the Federal Drug Control Service opened a criminal case against employees of the Department for Combating Illicit Drug Trafficking (OBNON) of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for Tatarstan. This was followed by the initiation of the TFR case against the head of the operational service of the Federal Drug Control Service of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Competition stimulates the achievement of higher performance, but they do not directly reflect reality and can be subject to deformation, the authors of the study warn. Deformed indicators demonstrate only the effectiveness of cheating mechanisms on the part of departments, sociologists state.

The press service of the Federal Drug Control Service reminded RBC that the director of the department, Viktor Ivanov, back in the spring during a scientific and practical conference in Yekaterinburg, spoke about the distortion of criminal statistics for the sake of presenting the work of departments involved in the fight against crime. According to the Federal Drug Control Service, 75 percent of drug offenders are prosecuted for possession of one or two doses of drugs for personal consumption. The Federal Drug Control Service proposes to apply the law to such people not for punishment, but for release from drug addiction, using programs of complex rehabilitation and resocialization. For this, a special draft federal law has been prepared, the ministry said.

The Federal Drug Control Service of the Russian Federation (FSKN of Russia) is a federal executive body.

Until 2003, drug-related crimes in Russia were handled by the Ministry of the Interior. The structural unit was called the State Committee for Combating Illicit Trafficking in Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances under the Ministry of Internal Affairs. On March 1, 2003, the subdivision was transformed into the State Committee of the Russian Federation for Control over the Circulation of Narcotic Drugs and Psychotropic Substances (GNK). In 2004, the State Tax Committee was transformed into the Federal Drug Control Service of the Russian Federation (FSKN).

What does the FSKN do?

The main tasks of the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia are:

ensuring drug control;
detection, prevention, suppression, disclosure and preliminary investigation of crimes related to the jurisdiction of the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia;
coordinating the activities of executive authorities to combat drug trafficking;
creation and maintenance of a unified data bank on issues related to drug trafficking, as well as counteraction to their illicit trafficking.

On January 30, 2015, the Upper House of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation adopted the Federal Law, which gives the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia the right to ban new psychoactive substances.

How many employees in the FSKN?

The system of bodies of the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia is made up of the central office, as well as regional departments. At the moment, the regular number of drug control is about 34.5 thousand employees.

What is the salary of the head of the FSKN?

The average monthly salary of the head of the Federal Drug Control Service is 786 thousand rubles.

Is it true that they want to disband the Federal Drug Control Service?

According to Kommersant newspaper sources, the presidential administration was offered to disband the Federal Drug Control Service and dismiss some of the department's employees. The duties of this structure are supposed to be transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The proposed version of the reform provides for the reduction of 27 thousand employees of the Federal Drug Control Service with the subsequent transfer of the remaining seven and a half thousand drug police to the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

On June 1, 2016, the Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) was completely disbanded in Russia, which since 2003 has been the main state body in Russia responsible for the implementation of state drug policy. On this, on April 5, 2016, President of Russia Vladimir Putin signed a corresponding decree by which he abolished the Federal Drug Control Service and transferred the staffing of the service to the bodies of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The process of organizational and staffing activities for the accession of departments to the Ministry of Internal Affairs was completed on June 1, 2016.

From now on, the main part of law enforcement activities in the fight against drug trafficking in the stratum will be carried out by the police in the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, as it was before the creation of the Federal Drug Control Service in March 2003. To coordinate this process, the Main Directorate for Drug Control in the Russian Federation was created within the structure of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. At the regional level, the staff of the drug police was formed by former employees of the Federal Drug Control Service, and in Moscow almost 80% of the former employees of the Moscow Federal Drug Control Service went to work in the drug control department of the Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Moscow. In parallel, units of the FSB and the Federal Customs Service are working on the disclosure and investigation of drug crimes, but the share of drug crimes carried out by these services is traditionally small.

Oleg Zykov, president of the all-Russian charitable foundation "Russian charitable foundation "No to alcoholism and drug addiction" called one of the reasons for the closure of the department "hardware games in the inner circle of the President." Recall that the former head of the Federal Drug Control Service Viktor Ivanov is called a very close acquaintance of Vladimir Putin. According to information Ekho Moskvy, a native of the KGB, in the mayor's office of St. Petersburg, Viktor Ivanov oversaw law enforcement agencies.Later, Ivanov held high positions in the FSB, and in the 2000s he was an assistant to the president.

However, the high status did not help Ivanov to keep his department afloat, because critical statements about the State Drug Control Service from representatives of public organizations were heard earlier. Back in 2014, Zykov told Rosbalt that the Federal Drug Control Service should be liquidated. According to the expert, the Federal Drug Control Service in its activities duplicated the law enforcement functions of drug control, which should be performed by employees of a special unit of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, and at the same time was engaged in activities related to the preventive orientation, which is also formally assigned to the Federal Drug Control Service. "And today's design, when the Federal Drug Control Service and its main functions (related to drug trafficking and so on) performs quite badly, and does not cope with the implementation of various preventive programs, is absolutely ineffective. It is the artificial combination of various incompatible functions that leads to the fact that all of them are performed badly ", Zykov concluded then.

Russian experts believe that the main reason for the closure of the department is its extreme inefficiency. Aleksey Kurmanaevsky, Russian activist of the ENPUD Network, believes that it has become unprofitable for Putin to maintain such a large and inefficient apparatus. “The Federal Drug Control Service consumed about 35 billion rubles a year, while having an extremely low efficiency in terms of fulfilling its direct responsibility - removing the most dangerous drugs from illicit circulation. For example, less than 1% of heroin was seized.” says Mikhail Golichenko, expert at the Canadian HIV/AIDS Legal Network. In addition, the service fell under the general process of reforming the law enforcement agencies and, in the context of state budget savings, was completely disbanded together with the Federal Migration Service.

All interviewed experts are unanimous that after the dissolution of the Federal Service in this short period after the actual closure of the local service, repressive practices aimed at drug users have changed little. "Nothing changed. We go out every day on the street and face the same practices of fabricating cases and planting [drugs],” says Maxim Malyshev, social work coordinator of the Andrey Rylkov Foundation.

Despite this, in the long run, the closure of the Federal Drug Control Service could be considered a positive step for Russian drug policy, Mikhail Golichenko believes. In April 2016, he wrote that the elimination of the Service, whose main profile was to prosecute drugs, would reduce the level of repression. "This is good news for Russia's budget. In addition to the Service's direct budget of more than 30 billion rubles a year, the senseless persecution, directed primarily against drug users, put a significant strain on the judicial system and the penitentiary system." - says Golichenko.

It is too early to draw firm conclusions about the closure of the department, but one of the possible consequences could be a reduction in the number of people who use drugs who go to jail, predicts Golichenko. in support of his words, the expert brings statistics from the Ministry of Internal Affairs, according to which in January-June 2016, about 103 thousand drug crimes were registered, which is 17% less than the same reporting period in 2015. However, these data may also indicate a long process of disbanding the structures of the Federal Drug Control Service for the period from April to June 2016 and a corresponding decrease in performance in this area. So Konstantin Vilkov, head of the movement "Pskov - a city without drugs", said that the liquidation of the Federal Drug Control Service aggravated the situation in the Pskov region, and the chairman of the Sverdlovsk Regional Court Alexander Dementiev stated that the liquidation of the State Drug Control Service led to a decrease in the number of punished drug dealers by 20 %.

In addition, Mikhail Golichenko is confident that the closure of the Federal Drug Control Service will help improve Russia's reputation at the international level in the field of international drug cooperation. “From the very beginning of its activity, and especially with the arrival of Ivanov, the FSKN had considerable independence in matters of international cooperation, thanks to which it was able to intensively broadcast the bizarre drug policy of the Russian Federation to the international level, for example, regarding the prospects for introducing substitution therapy in Russia,” Golichenko believes.

Kurmanaevsky also says that over the years of his work, Viktor Ivanov has been very actively trying to take control of the system of rehabilitation centers in Russia, promoting prevention issues, his department controlled the certification procedures for rehabilitation centers and other NGOs working in the field of narcology. Ivanov made statements about the need to attract large amounts of funding to the national rehabilitation program. Ivanov and his department also worked closely with large organizations such as Healthy Country, trying, according to Kurmanaevsky, to create a single monopolized system of commercial rehabilitation centers, but to attract huge budget funds for this. So in 2013, the Federal Drug Control Service intended to connect private rehabilitation centers to the fight against drug addiction and requested 180 billion rubles for this purpose. Kurmanaevsky notes that with the departure of Ivanov, this activity has decreased significantly.

In this regard, Golichenko concludes that over the years of its existence, the Federal Drug Control Service has repeatedly justified the “GosKomDur’s rattle” that has stuck to it, and with the abolition of this body, one can count on the emergence of hope for the restoration of a positive image of law enforcement agencies on drug issues in Russia.

Dealers celebrated the liquidation of Gosnarkokontrol in the same way as bandits celebrated the collapse of the RUBOP in 2008. It took place due to the coincidence of many factors, the main of which were nurtured within the service itself.

The first two opium wars were unleashed in the 19th century by Britain in China. Today, the "third opium" has unfolded in Afghanistan, and its beneficiaries are somewhat different, and the losers may be all of us.

From one police to another

To date, according to the UN, about 200 thousand people die every year from drugs in the world. The blatant transparency of the Central Asian borders allowed the drug wave to overwhelm Russia.

In the 1990s, drug addiction became the scourge of young people - state institutions were powerless against its growth.

At the beginning of the 2000s, during the reforms of the state apparatus, the president decided on an ambiguous move - instead of the tax police, create a structure to combat drug crime. Moreover, most of the tax officials, who turned out to be forty thousand people, had to be retrained for a new specialization.

Considering that the original department was assembled according to the principle of Noah's Ark, all this motley audience from the former military, Chekists, police, prosecutors in one stroke became drug police.

"Gosnarkokartel"

The professional composition of the new service, although it was of various origins, was impressive. The new service was headed by the former first deputy director of the FSB, Viktor Cherkesov, who had extensive experience in investigative work.

And the already mentioned forty thousand former tax officers were joined by about three thousand policemen from the then disbanded OBNON (departments for combating drug trafficking).

The State Committee for Drug Control, or in common parlance Gosnarkokontrol, began work in July 2003, but it took about a year and a half to get on its feet and begin to bring results.

“The operational backbone was formed by 2005, - says the former deputy director of the Federal Drug Control Service, Police Lieutenant General Alexander Mikhailov. — And the main task then set before the service was to reduce the demand for drugs. Without this prevention, other functions simply did not make sense.

“In 2006, we reported on the level of drug use in the country, ranging from two to three million people,” Mikhailov continues. - During the work of Cherkesov, this figure has not increased, even managed to achieve a slight decrease.

According to him, if before 2005 the annual increase in registered drug addicts was 25%, by 2008 it had dropped to 1.5%.

One of the former leaders of the Federal Drug Control Service at the district level, let's call him Sidorov, on condition of anonymity, told Reedus how the work of the service was built on the "ground".

As it turned out, it was there that the first “cop wars” in the history of the new service began to develop - conflicts between law enforcement agencies.

“Since I worked in my hometown, I was not indifferent to the situation, unlike many colleagues, — recalls a former district leader. — Therefore, in the first six months of work, almost 3 kilograms of heroin were seized, which was a decent figure for the district level at that time.”

I must say that the Federal Drug Control Service, unlike the police, did not have a cane system. The latter worked according to the “APPG (the same period last year) +1” scheme, that is, a constant increase in indicators was artificially created.

“For this, the most diverse set of tricks was used, including completely inhuman ones, - the interlocutor says. “For example, gypsies were brought to the serviced territory, who started selling drugs, and the valiant police tracked the buyers and took them away until the required number was reached, while simultaneously receiving bribes from criminals.”

But there were cases and "funny".

Once, the duty unit received a call from a fitness club, where they found a bag with white powder and a pack of dollars, - again, on condition of anonymity, says a former employee of the central office of the Federal Drug Control Service, let's call him Petrov. - It turned out that almost a kilogram of heroin and money belonged to the son of one of the Central Asian diplomats. As a result, the powder turned out to be washing powder, the money turned out to be joke bank tickets, but the case was not opened, but the entire department, whose employees spent time, used mobile communications for free for a year, ”the law enforcement officer recalls about non-standard gratitude.

The notoriety of the OBNONS led to the fact that many heads of the FSKN subdivisions deliberately did not take former policemen into their team, preferring to them people "from the street", who, although they did not give results earlier than a year later, were not noticed in discrediting connections.

“For the sake of fairness, I’ll say that there were a lot of“ protectors ”among ours, - notes Sidorov. — There are plenty of examples when, in the early morning, special forces took the apartments of death dealers in other districts and regions and found only traces of hasty gathering there. The local chief, either ours or in the police department, was aware and warned, so relations deteriorated as soon as it became clear who was who.

Quite a few in the Federal Drug Control Service, according to Petrov, turned out to be "temporary workers" who saw in the service a source of income.

The operatives managed to sell the confiscated goods right on Lubyanka Square, not in the least embarrassed either by the “big brothers” looking out of the windows of the buildings opposite, or by police colleagues from the Kitai-Gorod police department.

However, the ex-drug police themselves are sure that the police will not be able to replace the FSKN, no matter how bad or good it may be.

"Reform of any special service, - says Sidorov, - or the creation of a new one always entails at least a six-month pause in work until everything settles down.

According to the interlocutor, “It will take a couple of years for the new Central Command of the Ministry of Internal Affairs to be able to work more or less at the level, but drug crime is always international, and the threat comes from outside”.

With the abandonment of many experienced employees, a huge layer of operational capabilities has been lost. In general, if it were necessary to create a combat-ready structure, it would be possible to take a couple of issues of the FSB Academy, and there would be no this motley crowd that dragged the service in different directions, like a swan, cancer and pike, the law enforcement officer is sure.

“Or it was necessary to transfer the functions of the FSKN to the FSB, and not to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, since drug crime is international. In order to successfully counter it, we need the joint work of the FSB, the border guards, and the Foreign Intelligence Service,” summarizes the interlocutor.

“The question of liquidating the structure has been periodically raised since its inception, - says the ex-deputy head of the Federal Drug Control Service. — But I think the decision to terminate the existence of the department is wrong. It was just necessary to change the tyrants back to professionals. The country needs a service that would coordinate countering the drug threat.”

It is hard to disagree with the general, given that, according to statistics, one sixth of the working-age population of Russia is made up of drug users.