Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has resulted in the overhaul of major narcotics routes:
Before the war, Russia served as a hub for cross-border flows of all types of illicit products, such as money, guns, drugs, and people throughout Europe and beyond. Ukraine’s criminal underworld once played a key role in distribution, Galeotti said during a presentation on his report on Monday.
But since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Galeotti said, Ukrainian gangsters had suddenly “rediscovered their patriotism” and were refusing to cooperate with the Russians. Ukraine’s cold shoulder, coupled with the closing of land routes in countries such as Finland, has forced Russian gangsters to find alternative drug routes.
The report found that in order to get products out of Russia and into other parts of Europe, traffickers were increasingly turning to Belarus as a new crucial transit hub.
Despite border controls set up throughout Europe, heroin, cocaine, and other narcotics were being smuggled out of Russia via Belarus, Galeotti said, while sanctioned items such as microchips and luxury goods were being smuggled in.
Galeotti said the larger criminal networks in Russia had suffered under the new dynamics, but smaller gangs once relegated to the backwaters of the Belarus border were suddenly reaping the rewards.
The war also appears to have impacted the demand for narcotics within Russia itself.
The report found that while some international drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, were still finding their way into the country from countries in Latin America, economic pressure on ordinary Russians’ pocketbooks due to wartime sanctions had changed the game.
Even before the war, cocaine was too expensive for most of Russian society, and the report said the use of heroin was on the decline throughout the country.
The report found that a lack of affordable drugs coupled with unreliable trafficking routes had led to a spike in synthetic drugs throughout Russia.
Galeotti said synthetic opioids were cheaper to manufacture and more accessible for ordinary Russians.
The report found the war had also sped up the use of synthetic amphetamines such as mephedrone — known as “salt” in Russian slang — because of increased consumption in cities such as Donetsk, where many soldiers were either based or taking leave.
A Royal United Service Institute report from May found that some Russian soldiers were being given amphetamines to lower their inhibitions while in combat. Meanwhile, a Russian news outlet in October reported soldiers were getting hard drugs delivered to their trenches to stave off boredom.
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I’m not sure what went wrong with the original post, but re-posting it fixed the problem. Odd.
Thanks Isegoria. As for the post content, mephedrone has been huge in Russia for years and long before the war, despite having only been rediscovered 20 years ago by Israeli chemist “Dr Z” / “kinetic” with original procedure announced on Rhodium’s forum 20 years ago. That procedure is mostly unused these days as it is still easy and cheap to get the ketone precursor. Hardly some lower quality substitute which they are forced to tolerate, it is superior to cocaine in every respect and this at only 1% of the price – even a small and low-yield lab can produce it for under a dollar per “fun night”. It is only because meth is even cheaper and more potent and more readily available that mephedrone hasn’t yet caught on in the US. As for militaries giving soldiers amphetamines, that’s nothing new, both Allies and Axis did so in WWII, and “forced march” tablets of cocaine were rationed out prior to that.
‘But since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Galeotti said, Ukrainian gangsters had suddenly “rediscovered their patriotism” and were refusing to cooperate with the Russians.’
Yes, it was absolutely voluntary patriotism. It was not at all because the Russkies had decided to shoot on sight. Patriotism, comrades. Do not listen to the wreckers.