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Russian Interior Ministry appoints heads of migration, drug control units

MOSCOW, April 7. /TASS/. Russia’s First Deputy Interior Minister Alexander Gorovoy and Deputy Minister Mikhail Vanichkin will be responsible in the ministry for issues of migration and the work of the drug control units, Interior Ministry spokeswoman Irina Volk Division told TASS on Thursday.

"First Deputy Interior Minister of the Russian Federation, Police Colonel General Alexander Gorovoy will be responsible for the work of the ministry’s migration unit. Deputy Interior Minister, Police Colonel General Mikhail Vanichkin - for the work of the drug control unit," Volk said.

On April 5, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree, which abolished the Russian Federal Drug Control Service and Federal Migration Service. According to the Kremlin press service, the staff of these services is transferred to Russia’s Interior Ministry. The staff size of the Federal Migration Service will be reduced by one third.

The document deals with the improvement of state management in the control of trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors and in the migration area. It says that the reforms are carried out to improve state management in the field of control of trafficking in narcotic drugs, psychotropic substances and their precursors and in the sphere of migration.

The abolished services will be referred to in the Interior Ministry’s system as the General Directorate for Migration Issues and the General Directorate for Drug Control.