Pubdate: Wed, 28 Apr 2004
Source: Moscow Times, The (Russia)
Copyright: 2004 The Moscow Times
Contact:  http://www.moscowtimes.ru/
Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/903
Author: Carl Schreck, Staff Writer

ANTI-DRUG AGENTS TARGETING CITY CLUBS

One night last November, men in camouflage wearing ski masks and
wielding Kalashnikovs burst into the popular nightclub Propaganda and
ordered people up against the wall.

"It looked like 'Nord-Ost,'" said Roman Alyokhin, director of the
nightclub in central Moscow, referring to the storming of the Dubrovka
theater by Chechen militants in October 2002. "Only after three or
four minutes did they finally identify themselves."

They were agents from the newly formed anti-drug force.

They searched club-goers for illegal substances, examined them for
signs of drug use and also seized dozens of video surveillance
cassettes, which Alyokhin said was illegal. Propaganda filed a
complaint with the Prosecutor General's Office, but nothing ever came
of it, he said.

What is now called the Federal Anti-Drug Service officially came into
existence on July 1, 2003, taking over the duties of the Interior
Ministry's narcotics department, and at the end of September its
agents began raiding the city's nightclubs. "It took us a little while
to get organized," a spokeswoman for the service's Moscow bureau said.

  From October through April, the drug force conducted more than 170
raids. Of the 200 people detained in the raids, 80 were formally
charged, more than half of them with dealing.

The operations have spawned a slew of accusations of drug agents using
excessive force or profiting from extortion, behavior the head of the
drug service's Moscow bureau, Alexei Chuvayev, explains rather than
denies.

"We can't detain drug dealers without being rough," Chuvayev said in
an interview last week. "Otherwise they'll have a chance to discard
the drugs, making it difficult to identify who was carrying them."

Alyokhin said the drug agents did not hit anyone when raiding
Propaganda on Nov. 30. "But they were pushing people pretty hard," he
said.

The spokeswoman for Chuvayev's bureau, speaking by telephone and on
condition of anonymity, said most of the complaints were made when the
raids first started in late September and put the problems down to
growing pains. Over time, the agents have learned to tone down their
approach, she said.

Special forces agents -- the ones with Kalashnikovs in the Propaganda
raid -- and city police are rarely used any more in the raids. Drug
agents now handle most of them alone and unarmed, the spokeswoman said.

"Why do we need to scare people?" she said.

A spokeswoman for one of Moscow's elite clubs, which has been raided
several times, said she has noticed the change. "The raids are getting
more and more civilized," said the spokeswoman, who asked that neither
her name nor that of the club be published.

Extortion is another matter.

Lev Levinson, head of New Drug Policy, an advocacy group for drug law
reform established last fall, said the raids have little to do with
battling drug trafficking and serve mainly to put money in the pockets
of drug agents.

Levinson said his organization has been in contact with club owners,
who say they pay off the drug agents to prevent their businesses from
being raided.

"It's strictly a commercial enterprise," he said.

Vladimir, a 23-year-old DJ, said he has witnessed several incidents of
extortion by drug agents during raids at clubs where he was spinning
records.

"They make very good money," said Vladimir, who asked that his last
name not be published. "Not too long ago, I saw them stop a guy
outside of a club. They knew he'd been taking something, and they let
him go after he forked over 26,000 rubles ($900) and his cellphone."

Again, Chuvayev did not deny that some of the drug agents take money
in exchange for not making an arrest. He called the corruption "a
sickness found in any government organ" as a result of the miniscule
state wages.

"What is the solution?" he asked rhetorically. "The president is
raising salaries, and if he raises them here, then it will be a step
forward in the battle against corruption."

Viktor Cherkesov, who heads the Federal Anti-Drug Service, has
defended his agents, saying they only raid a club when they are
certain of finding drugs.

"It doesn't happen just because we saw the address in the newspaper or
saw a sign against a dark background," Cherkesov told NTV in February.
"There hasn't been one raid that didn't bring results."

Chuvayev backed up Cherkesov's assertion, saying that information
about drugs in clubs is gathered through "operative means," such as
audio and video recordings and informers. The agents pounce after
collecting enough evidence that someone is dealing, he said.

By the time the raid is conducted, "we know when, how and by whom" the
drugs are being sold, Chuvayev said.

Alyokhin, however, said the Nov. 30 raid on Propaganda netted only the
bare minimum.

"They didn't find much: one gram of marijuana and an empty package of
Viagra," Alyokhin said, adding that he suspected even those minor
discoveries may have been planted. Viagra is sold without a
prescription at pharmacies throughout Moscow.

According to statistics provided by Chuvayev's bureau, there are about
350 clubs in the city where drugs, primarily Ecstasy, are being sold.
Chuvayev was more specific.

"There are around 100 where drugs are being sold every week, and maybe
every day," he said. "Right now, we know of a dozen or so clubs that
were opened especially to sell drugs."

President Vladimir Putin, speaking to a gathering of Federal Anti-Drug
Service officials in late March, said the burgeoning number of addicts
in Russia posed a threat to the nation, and scolded the officials for
not doing more to stop drug dealing.

"The country expects results from you," Putin said.

While raiding clubs is only part of what the service does, Chuvayev
said his Moscow agents are cracking down on dealers, while leaving
drug users alone.

"You have to treat drug users, help them get better," he said. "Drug
trafficking is what we're fighting."

Under amendments to the Criminal Code that Putin signed into law in
December, as of May 12, possession of small quantities of drugs will
no longer be punishable by a prison sentence but only by a fine.
Sentences for dealing and selling to minors, however, will be harsher.

Chuvayev said his agents are making an effort to enlist the clubs in
their anti-drug campaign, and to this end met with representatives of
20 of the city's biggest clubs last week. He refused to name the clubs.

The director of one popular club in the city center who was at the
meeting said, "It was basically just a general meeting for them to let
us know that drugs are a priority for the government and to ask for
our cooperation."

The club representatives were told they would be contacted in the
coming weeks by a drug agent who would be assigned to work
individually with their club, the director said, speaking on condition
neither he nor his club was identified.

The meeting was relaxed, although the drug agents made clear they
planned to close down certain clubs that have refused to cooperate, he
said.

Chuvayev said the clubs have an economic interest in keeping out
drugs.

"Most of the clubs make money when their customers come to relax, eat
and drink alcohol," he said. "People who take drugs drink water. It's
not profitable for the owner."

The club director said this was a fair assessment.

A written report prepared by Chuvayev's bureau offers further insight
into its approach to combating drugs in Moscow's nightclubs

At times it recalls the campy speech on marijuana culture's four
states of being -- Cool, Groovy, Hip and Square -- at the national
district attorneys conference in Hunter S. Thompson's "Fear and
Loathing in Las Vegas."

"Operations we have conducted, including raids at nightclubs, show
that a person with an average income is unlikely to seek 'pleasure' in
the club," reads one section of the drug service's report. "Club
patrons are primarily made up of the so-called 'golden youth' --
children, many of whom are underage, with well-off parents. Thus,
these are young people with incomes much higher than the average."

According to the report, drugs are the only way these kids can deal
with today's club scene: "The volume of the music, the lights and the
general atmosphere in the hall are very difficult to handle without
drugs. More than 30 to 40 minutes without 'doping,' not necessarily
Ecstasy, is impossible to tolerate."

The club director chuckled when he heard that theory. "I have to spend
nine hours in that atmosphere, and I'm not on drugs," he said. "Nor
are our bartenders or our employees, like the 60-year-old cleaners we
have working for us."
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MAP posted-by: Richard Lake