All this calls for moves to update the Russian Criminal Code with articles on legal responsibility for the production and sale of drugs which must be considered to belong to the categories of serious and most serious criminal offenses punishable by ten to fifteen years of imprisonment and the confiscation of property.

The climatic conditions on the territory of Russian Federation favor the natural growth and cultivation of drug-bearing plants, which may be, or are already, used for the purpose of drug production. This calls for the need to constantly perfect methods of exposing and destroying such plants, both those that are wild and those that are raised, which, in turn, calls for a wide range of financial and organizational efforts.

Its geographic and geopolitical position makes the Russian Federation a convenient trans-shipment point on the road from Asia to other former Soviet republics and on to Europe. The Russian government, its law-enforcement agencies, in particular, must, as a result, check illegal attempts to take drugs across the national border, bolster up its customs services and see to it that they upgrade their performance and work in close cooperation with the territorial and traffic police and other agencies expected to carry out programs of action against narcotics.

The newly gained independence requires that the Russian Federation confront two problems directly related to narcotics and efforts to overcome it.

First of all, borders between Russia and other former Soviet republics show the highest degree of transparency, i.e. border-crossing presents almost no problem. Given the geographic and geopolitical position of Russia, the transparency of the national border aggravates the problem of drug smuggling and calls for the need to essentially fortify the border and better customs control along it.

Secondly, there is the problem of international relations in the field of narcotics and international efforts to deal with it. There are two angles to this second problem. Now that it has gained sovereignty, Russia has to assume upon itself the functions of establishing and maintaining international relations, especially since it represents a sort of a link in the chain that ties drug- producers and drug-consuming regions together.

The second angle of this problem lies in the fact that once being a part of the Soviet Union, Russian Federation neither faced nor could possibly face obstacles concerning the jurisdiction of its anti-crime effort, including crimes committed on territories of different Soviet republics. Now that they are sovereign nations, the former Soviet republics have national borders, which, transparent as they are, make legal action against criminal elements possible only in the context of international relations and in keeping with international agreements. This, naturally, complicates the timely launching of operational and investigative actions aimed at solving criminal cases including those of drug-trafficking.