General Directorate for Drug Control
Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN]

On April 5, 2016 the Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN / FDCS] / Federal Narcotics Service (FNS), ommonly known as The Drugs Police [Narkopolitsia], was dissolved in April 2016, and its functions and authorities were transferred to the Ministry of Internal Affairs. The Federal Service of the Russian Federation for Drug Control (Federal Drug Control Service of Russia) was a federal executive authority performing functions of public policy, legal regulation, control and supervision in the sphere of turnover of narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors, as well as in the field of combat their illicit trafficking.

On September 24 2002 the State Committee to combat illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances [Gosnarkokontrol Russia] was created under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation.

On 11 March 2003 the State Committee to combat illicit trafficking in narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Russia was transformed into the State Committee of the Russian Federation on control over narcotic drugs and psychotropic substances (Federal Drug Control Service of Russia), the chairman of the committee appointed V. V. Cherkesov. The Committee transmitted the material base and the majority (40,000 troops) of the abolished Federal Service of Tax Police. The Committee began its work 01 July 2003.

Putin transformed the Federal Drug Control Service into a sort of second FSB in the mid-2000s. This move put the two intelligence services into competition, allowing Putin to rely on either one as the situation demanded, playing each against the other. Viktor Cherkesov worked with Putin in the KGB's Leningrad office, was appointed director of the Federal Security Service [FSB] in 1998, then headed the powerful Federal Agency for Drug Control beginning in March 2004.

By the end of 2007 Dmitry Medvedev was allied with the "invalids" of the siloviki -- those organs like Col. Gen. Viktor Cherkesov's Federal Drug Control Agency and Viktor Zolotov's Presidential Protective Service -- in the increasing tense maneuvering among the Kremlin elite. President Medvedev nominated a new cabinet on 13 May 2008 that left the "Zubkov" cabinet largely intact. Minister of Justice Ustinov, Federal Security Service Head Nikolay Patrushev, and Federal Drug Control Service Viktor Cherkesov lost their jobs - suggesting a shake-up in the "silovik" camp.

The former KGB colleague of Vladimir Putin was tapped to head Russia's arms-export agency, new President Dmitry Medvedev said 12 May 2008. Col. Gen. Viktor Cherkesov was selected to be the head of the Federal Service for Exports of Arms, Military and Special Equipment.

The two had been involved in a behind the scenes struggle for influence, with "embarrassing" behavior - such as Cherkesev's letter in 2007 complaining about the conflict between the services. Cherkesov was the ringleader of all the big drug smuggling busts that went down in 2007 where FSB guys were caught smuggling drugs in from China to Russia through television sets.

On 09 October 2007 a newspaper article in the national daily newspaper Kommersant by head of the Federal Narcotics Service's (FSKN) Chairman Viktor Cherkesov complained about those siloviki who had become businessmen instead of soldiers for the state and he lifted the lid on the power struggle among the Kremlin-centered elite. Most commentators viewed Cherkesov's article through the lens of his ongoing conflict with Presidential Administration Deputy Igor Sechin and FSB Chief Patrushev. They saw the arrest that preceded its publication as revenge for the FSKN Chief's role in the "Three Whales" furniture stores and Chinese goods corruption probes, as well as the ouster, in summer 2006, of then-Prosecutor General Ustinov, all of which undercut the FSB.

From FSKN's and the Russian Government's point of view the trafficking of Afghan opiates and their abuse is considered a "weapon of mass destruction" for the Russian Federation, which was inflicting great harm to the country and its citizens. By 2010 every day there were approximately 80 to 150 drug related deaths of Russian citizens, which can be attributed to the abuse of Afghan opiates. The FSKN was accomplishing a lot in combating the Afghan opiate problem but had realized that it is impossible to tackle this problem alone and without cooperation from other countries, including the United States.

In 2014, the United States unilaterally suspended cooperation across 21 level working groups, including the Russian-American Counternarcotics Working Group established in 2009 at the presidential level.

The Federal Service for Drug Control of the Russian Federation is a federal body of executive authority responsible for drafting state policy, legal regulation, control and monitoring in the sphere of combating trafficking drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors. The President of the Russian Federation oversees the activity of the Federal Drug Control Service.

The primary goals of FDCS of the Russian Federation are:

• Control over trafficking drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors along with taking measures to combat their illicit trafficking;
• Exposure, prevention, preclusion, detection and preliminary investigation of crimes as well as carrying out administrative proceedings referred by the legislation of the Russian Federation accordingly to the jurisdiction or to the competence of agencies exercising control over trafficking drugs and psychotropic substances (hereinafter referred to as drug control agencies);
• Coordination of activities of federal executive bodies, executive bodies of constituent entities of the Russian Federation and local authorities in the sphere of trafficking drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors, as well as in the sphere of combating their illicit trafficking;
• Participation in the development and implementation of the state policy in the sphere of trafficking drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors, as well as in the sphere of combating their illicit trafficking;
• Establishment and maintenance of a single databank on the issues related to trafficking drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors, as well as combating their illicit trafficking;
• According to the international treaties of the Russian Federation, interaction and information exchange with international organizations and competent authorities of foreign states in the sphere of trafficking drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors, along with representation of the interests of the Russian Federation related to trafficking drugs, psychotropic substances and theirprecursors in international organizations.

The Russian Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) through cooperation with the US Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) helped the United States dismantle the American branch of a transnational criminal drug syndicate. "Representatives of the Federal Drug Control Service of Russia handed over to [DEA] officers operational materials… [for] over one thousand drug dealers [operating in the United States] when conducting a large-scale counter-narcotics operation Mozaika (Mosaic) aimed to dismantle a transnational criminal drug syndicate," the FSKN stated in a release on 12 March 2016. Operation Mosaic was launched in the summer of 2015 to dismantle a transnational criminal syndicate comprised of 10,000 drug dealers operating in 47 countries.

In July 2015 the Russian Federation Presidential Administration considered a number of proposals for future reductions in power and law enforcement agencies. As part of the budget cuts proposed to disband the Russian Federal Drug Control Service. The staffing of drug control was about 34,000 employees. It was proposed to lay off about 27,000, with another 7,500 officers transferred to the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs in the Criminal Investigation Division. This reduced the budget by about 30 billion rubles. Savings would mainly due to massive reduction of the administrative apparatus. Separately, the theme of drugs legal trade (pharmacies, pharmaceutical companies, and so on) would be engaged in not as law enforcement, but with the corresponding service of Ministry of Health of Russia.

By the decree "On improvement of state management in the control of trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors in the field of migration" of April 5, 2016, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation (MVD of Russia) is a federal body of executive authority responsible for the development and implementation of the state policy and normative legal regulation in the sphere of internal affairs, in the control of trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors in the field of migration (hereinafter - the sphere of internal affairs), as well as law enforcement functions in the federal state control (supervision) in these areas, with the General Directorate for Drug Control.

Nikolay Aulov, was Colonel General of the police andDeputy Director of the Federal Drug Control Service of the Russian Federation, chief executive of Operational-Investigative Department. Nikolay Aulov was born in 1952. In 1976 has graduated the Leningrad polytechnical institute, in 1988 - the Leningrad Higher school of militia of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR. Since 1988 - deputy chief of the Northen and the Northwest regional Directorate for Combating Organised Crime.

Since November, 2006 he was the chief of Main Directorate of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation on the Central federal district. From june 16, 2008 by the presidential edict Nikolay Aulov was appointed to the post of deputy director of the Federal Drug Control Service of the Russian Federation the chief executive of Operational-Investigative Department.

The judge of the Central Investigative Court #5 of Spain Jose De la Mata Amaya supposed in April 2016 that Nikolai Aulov was involved in the activities of a criminal group, which, according to Spain, was headed by a “criminal authority” Gennady Petrov. As a result, a decision to arrest Aulov was made, and he was declared as a wanted person.