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Putin calls for enhancing control over investigations into drug-related cases

The president demanded that the report on this decree should be submitted to him before October 1

© Mikhail Metzel/TASS,archive

MOSCOW, July 2. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin ordered that measures to enhance control over conducting investigation into cases linked to illegal drug trafficking be hammered out by October 1. This item is contained in the list of decrees based on the results of Vladimir Putin’s annual Q&A session and published on the Kremlin’s website on Tuesday.

"The Russian General Prosecutor’s Office in cooperation with the Investigative Committee, the Interior Ministry and the Federal Security Service (FSB) will analyze law enforcement practices in criminal cases on illicit trafficking in narcotic and psychotropic substances. Furthermore, (they) will take measures within their purview aimed at enhancing effective control over the legitimacy of decisions taken by the authorities that carry out investigative operations, questioning and preliminary investigations for the specified category of criminal cases," the decree reads.

Putin demanded that the report on this decree should be submitted to him before October 1, followed by a report once every six months further on.

In addition, in the same period, Putin ordered the Interior Ministry in cooperation with the Health Ministry "to analyze law enforcement’s practice of holding medical and pharmaceutical employees criminally responsible for violating rules on the trafficking of narcotic and psychotropic substances that led to their loss, and, if need be, make proposals for the decriminalization of the specified acts in question that were committed out of negligence and do not constitute a public danger.".

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