In one of his final public statements, outgoing National Security Adviser General James Jones delivered a speech in Russia earlier this month about transnational security challenges facing decision-makers in both Moscow and Washington.
Among the threats he explored in his October 5th speech in Sochi, Russia was the “global drug trade,” which he noted “is now expanding to criminal groups in countries like Russia, China, Italy and the Balkans – countries that had not previously been victimized by narcotics trafficking. Opium and heroin trafficked from Afghanistan funds the Taliban as well as insurgents and criminal groups in Central Asia, the Caucasus and Russia. And the consequences are heartbreaking for families and communities as these illicit activities can be accompanied by unspeakable violence.”
Jones’ speech obviously struck a chord with his Russian hosts. Moscow promptly dispatched Victor Ivanov, director of Russia’s Federal Anti-Narcotics Committee (and a close political ally of Prime Minister Putin) on a visit to the US, with the apparent goal of amplifying Jones’ comments about the need to crack down on Afghanistan’s drug barons and the estimated $65 billion a year they earn from the opium trade. Russia is unfortunately a prime market for Afghanistan’s opium.
An oped by Ivanov on the Taliban-opium link ran in the Washington Times on October 20. On October 21, he joined Gil Kerlikowske, Director, White House Office of National Drug Control Policy to brief journalists about US-Russia anti-narcotics cooperation.
On October 22, Foreign Policy ran an interview with Ivanov where he reinforced his anti-Afghan opium remarks.
One interpretation of Ivanov’s flurry of comments on the Afghan opium barons is that the Russians want to try to smoke out the views of Thomas Donilon, Gen. Jones’ successor as President Obama’s National Security Advisor, on Afghanistan’s opium trade. Ivanov’s statements and comments represent a kind of diplomatic hardball, a way to pressure Donilon into taking a hard line on this poisonous enterprise.
Donilon, the White House and their respective media advisers probably do not think much of this Russian gambit. No one likes to have to make policy on the fly, in response to aggressive public statements by a foreign official.
Still, you can’t fault the Russians, through Ivanov, for asking the NATO forces in Afghanistan to do more to crush the opium barons and tear up their network of farms, processing labs and transportation assets. Every opium shipment burned, every lab put out of business means less money for the drug barons to funnel to the Taliban – which means less money for weapons for Taliban fighters to use to kill NATO soldiers.
We may not like the messenger, or how he has decided to express himself — but we ignore his message at our peril.
