ISDEI Instituto de Seguridad, Defensa y Estudios Internacionales

In April 2014, the service’s director described the drug production developing on planetary scale as “fostered by the US and NATO” and “the legacy Russia and the world will have to deal with” This was a 50% year-on-year increase, he added, in particular a 30% rise in the amount of heroin (1.7 tonnes) and a 150% increase in synthetic narcotics seized (3 tonnes). The drug police prevented 82% of crimes (10,790 of a total of 12,771) in illicit organized drug trafficking. A total of 746 drug syndicates were eliminated. One of the major Afghan heroin supply channels was detected in late June - the drugs flowing to Siberia through Kazakhstan. The police seized 36 kilograms and ended operations of the transnational group of traffickers. Drug production is expanding at a high pace. According to the Russian drug service, it has grown 400% over the last 10 years. The country produced up to 90% of global opium a year, or 150 billion single doses. A surge in drug production occurred after the inte...

Meanwhile, the representatives of the intelligence say they have no evidence of Russia's direct complicity to the occurred tragedy © EPA/IGOR KOVALENKO Gallery 2 photo Video allegedly showing Buk system transfer from Ukraine to Russia fake WASHINGTON, July 23. /Dmitry Kirsanov for ITAR-TASS/. American intelligence services believe that Malaysia Airlines’ passenger plane was shot down July 17 by militias as a result of a mistake, since they apparently took it to be a military jet. Representatives of the US intelligence reported this to journalists at a special briefing arranged by the US Administration on Tuesday. They recognized that Washington doesn’t have any information on Russia’s direct implication in the occurred tragedy. At the same time, the briefing’s speakers stated that Russia "created the conditions" that resulted in the air crash in eastern Ukraine. In addition, they blamed Moscow for continuing supplying Ukrainian rebels with weapons, including air defense...

A group of experts studied the tape and came to the conclusion that it was made up of numerous unrelated recordings © ITAR-TASS MOSCOW, uly 20 /ITAR-TASS/. A tape posted by Ukrainian security services in the Internet and allegedly recording a talk between self-defense fighters about the destruction of a Malaysian airliner is a fake, experts said on Sunday. A group of experts studied the tape and came to the conclusion that it was made up of numerous unrelated recordings. “This audio recording is not an integral file and is made up of several fragments,” said Nikolai Popov, a reputable expert in sound and voice analysis. 196 people found dead at Malaysian airliner crash site in Ukraine Specifically, the first of the three audio fragments, in which Gorlovka self-defense militia commander Igor Bezler talks about a plane shot down by the fighters, does not say anything about the type of the plane, the expert said. At the same time, the name of the town of Yenakiyevo is clearly heard in th...

By Tristan Reed Mexico Security Analyst Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto aggressively pursued a strategy of targeting top organized crime leaders throughout Mexico in the second quarter -- and not just in Michoacan, Sinaloa and Tamaulipas, the states that the country's major criminal groups call home. Michoacan, Sinaloa and Tamaulipas In Michoacan, Mexico City achieved substantial success against organized crime in the first half of 2014. Self-defense militias and Mexican authorities have dismantled most of the senior leadership of the Knights Templar. Only Servando "La Tuta" Gomez Martinez remains at large. Federal forces also continued to inflict significant leadership losses on organized crime groups in Sinaloa, particularly the Sinaloa Federation. The arrest of top Sinaloa Federation leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera on Feb. 22 capped the government's successes in Sinaloa. The Mexican military on June 23 also arrested Fernando "El Ingeniero...

The United States and Iran have put off hard decisions on a nuclear compromise for another four months. The gap between the U.S. and Iranian positions was evidently wide enough to prevent the signing of a deal during a particularly eventful week of global crises. With this delay, the United States and Iran have made it harder for themselves to curb domestic resistance to a deal. For such a complex negotiation, the fundamental disagreement between the two sides is fairly straightforward. The International Atomic Energy Agency already has verified that so far Iran has cooperated, halting enrichment and converting its existing stockpile of highly enriched uranium to uranium oxide. The next step will be for Iran to turn that uranium oxide into nuclear fuel over the next four months for use in power plants and research reactors, bringing the country's enrichment activity more in line with a civilian nuclear program. Iran believes it has resolved the most controversial aspect of its nucl...

Israeli soldiers hold positions near the Israel-Gaza border July 21. (JACK GUEZ/AFP/Getty Images) Summary Israeli forces in Gaza slowly but steadily pushed west over the weekend as they continued to identify and destroy the infrastructure Palestinian militants use to transport material and conduct attacks. As expected, intense fighting occurred in the eastern fringes of Gaza City, particularly in Shejaiya district, as Hamas confronted the advancing troops. The fighting will only intensify as the Israelis move from rural areas into more urbanized terrain . Analysis Israeli forces have uncovered and destroyed 14 tunnels leading from the Gaza Strip into Israel. Since the ground incursion began , some 39 tunnel access points throughout Gaza have been identified. Though most have been subjected to airstrikes, Israel Defense Forces want to ensure their destruction from the ground, and the search for more tunnels continues, with ground forces moving from building to building in the hopes o...

Analysis Editor's Note: The following is an internal Stratfor document listing significant meetings and events planned for the next week. Stratfor analysts use this to stay informed of the activities and travel of world leaders and to guide their areas of focus for the week. Europe July 21-22: EU ministers for ministers responsible for trade, industry, research and innovation, economy and space will hold informal meetings in the Competitiveness Council in Italy. July 22: The EU Foreign Affairs Council will be held in Brussels. July 22: A Central European summit on security policy will be held in Poland. The presidents of Poland, Bulgaria, Romania, the Baltic countries and the Visegrad Group will attend the meeting. July 22-24: European Parliament committee meetings will be held in Brussels. July 23: The EU General Affairs Council will be held in Brussels. July 24: Cypriot President Nicos Anastasiades and Turkish Cypriot leader Dervis Eroglu will meet to continue the negotiations ...

A voter casts her ballot in a polling station during Italy's February general elections.(FILIPPO MONTEFORTE/AFP/Getty Images) Summary In recent years, several European countries have made it easier for their citizens living abroad to vote. Some have even created electoral districts to represent emigrants. This is a controversial issue in the countries that grant these rights and in the countries where the immigrants reside, and accusations of foreign meddling in domestic issues abound. Expatriates are becoming an increasingly attractive electoral group for some countries as nationalist parties become more popular throughout the Continent. This will create tension between the countries that impose strict immigration policies and those that want to attract the votes of their citizens living abroad. Analysis Most countries allow their expatriates to vote in elections and referendums, often using their embassies and consulates as polling stations. A few countries still require their ci...