.RF, Tajik top-ranking interior officers to discuss joint anti-drug efforts.

DUSHANBE, December 6 (Itar-Tass) -- A joint meeting of the Russian and
Tajik interior ministry boards will be held in Dushanbe on Monday to
discuss the suppression of transnational organized crime and cooperation
in migration. The Russian delegation is led by Russian Interior Minister
Rashid Nurgaliyev.
According to a Russian interior ministry spokesman, the sides will
also discuss joint efforts to expose wanted criminals and to search for
the missing. A separate issue on the agenda is personnel training. "Tajik
interior officers are undergoing enhanced training at Russian police
schools," the spokesman said. "More than 100 specialists from the Tajik
interior ministry are currently being trained in Russia."
The meeting will focus on anti-drug measures. Earlier, the Russian
interior minister told journalists that according to expert estimates,
more than 90 percent of heroin seized in Russia had Afghan origin and is
trafficked across the Afghan-Tajik border via the "northern route" to
Russia. "Tajikistan's geographical position is on the way of
drug-trafficking routes from the "golden crescent" region to Central Asian
and European states," Nurgaliyev said. "Now one can clearly sea a tendency
of growing organized crime, increasing professionalism of drug dealers,
closer ties with organized drug-related structures active in other
countries."
According to the Russian interior ministry statistics, every sixth
criminal case opened in Russia in 2009 on charges of large-scale (one
kilogram and more) drug trafficking was against Tajik citizens. In all,
some 1,200 Tajiks were brought to criminal liability over drug-related
crimes. "One of the most efficient cooperation formats between Russian and
Tajik interior agencies in this area is staging preventive operations,"
the Russian interior minister noted. "Last year, the Kanal (Channel)
operation exposed more than 6,000 drug-related crimes, more than 3.2 tons
of drugs were then seized. And in 2010, joint operations of the two
countries' interior ministries yielded 37.5 kilograms of heroin and seven
kilograms of opium."
Another key issue on the meeting's agenda is counteracting illegal
migration. Currently, Tajikistan is one of the biggest suppliers of labour
migrants to Russia. The Russian Federal Migration Service's offices in
Tajikistan offer assistance to Tajik vocational training centres in
organizing classes in the Russian language and fundamentals of Russian
law, the spokesman for the Russian interior ministry said.

.Russian President's visit to Poland to yield several bilateral
documents.

WARSAW, December 6 (Itar-Tass) -- Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's
visit to Poland, which begins on Monday, will open up a new page in
relations between the two countries, Polish politicians and experts
believe.
Poland hopes that Russia's course towards modernization "will also
mean modernization of relations between the two countries," Polish
President Bronislaw Komorowski said in an interview with the local
television just before the visit. He expressed the hope that partner
relations and "painful but necessary reconciliation process will be based
on the truth and democratic values."
Medvedev's visit is expected to yield a number of bilateral documents.
They will include intergovernmental agreements on sea transport and on
cooperation in fight against the pollution of the Baltic Sea by oil and
other harmful substances, a memorandum on cooperation between the general
prosecutor's offices, a protocol of intents to set up joint dialogue and
accord centers.
Poland highly appreciated the Russian State Duma's statement on the
Katyn tragedy, which put the blame for it on the Stalin regime. "The fact
that Medvedev is coming several days after a momentous statement by the
State Duma that condemned the Katyn crime testified to a serious approach
of Russian authorities to this visit to Poland," said Polish Foreign
Minister Radoslaw Sikorski.
The Russian delegation includes a team of prosecutors lead by Russian
Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika. The Russian prosecutors on Monday are
planned to meet with their Polish colleagues, who investigate into the
crash of the Polish president's airplane near Russia's Smolensk. The crash
killed 96 Polish top-ranking officials, including former President Lech
Kaczynski.
Bilateral cultural and humanitarian relations will also be in the
focus of attention during talks between the leaders of the two countries,
in particular, in the light of the Polish initiative of an efficient and
constant mechanism of youth exchanges as an important contribution to the
future of the bilateral relations. The heads of state will meet with the
delegates to the Russian-Polish Public Dialogue, which will be holding a
meeting in Warsaw.
It is also planned that the Russian president will award acclaimed
Polish film director Andrzej Wajda with the Order of Friendship. A
relevant decree was signed back on August 10.
-0-ras


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