President Hamid Karzai reagerer negativt på at russere deltok i operasjonen mot narkolaboratorier i Afghanistan nylig. Han sier den type militær innblanding må ha godkjennelse fra landets ledelse. Protesten er neppe god PR. Det russiske nærværet besto i to eller fire russiske narkoagenter, og beslaget var heroin til over 300 millioner kroner.

Den som hører Karzais protest vil uvegerlig tenke på at folk i hans egen administrasjon er innblandet i narkosmugling, blant annet hans bror.

Han blir også stilt i forlegenhet av nestleder for bekjempelse av narko i innenriksdepartementet, som sier at det slett ikke var russiske militære med. Det blir tydeligere at det er selve samarbeidet med russerne som Karzai ikke liker, til tross for at narko og korrupsjon er det som truer hans regime, like mye som Taliban.

The seizure of $55.9 million worth of heroin – more than 2,000 pounds – and the discovery of four clandestine drug-producing labs in the eastern province of Nangahar was described by U.S. officials as a major success and a sign of international cooperation in the fight against narcotics. It was the first time Americans and Afghans had teamed with Russians on a military operation.

But senior Afghan officials, apparently unaware of the Russians’ participation, reacted angrily to news reports of the raid.

«Whenever they want to take [the Russians], we should be aware of it,» Interior Minister Besmillah Khan Mohammady said Saturday before a news conference on the matter in Kabul.

Karzai called the operation a violation of sovereignty, saying that «no institution has the right to conduct any such military operation inside our territory without the agreement of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan.»

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«Operation Tar Pit» was conducted by the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration, along with U.S. troops, Afghan counter-narcotics police and the Russian anti-drug agents, according to a DEA statement Friday. In addition to the heroin, the team found more than 300 pounds of opium and drugmaking chemicals.

At the news conference, Baz Mohammad Amadi, the deputy head of counter-narcotics in the Afghan Interior Ministry, said that no Russian military personnel were involved in the raid and that only two Russian anti-narcotics experts accompanied the other forces as observers. Other news reports said four Russians took part.

Because foreigners’ «faces are similar,» he said, «the Afghans didn’t know the Russians were participating.»

To U.S. and Russian officials, the operation signaled new cooperation and progress in the drug war. Russia’s drug czar, Victor Ivanov, announced the raid in Moscow on Friday alongside Eric Rubin, the deputy chief of mission at the U.S. Embassy. Moscow officials have long argued that NATO is not doing enough to combat the thriving drug trade in Afghanistan, which sends heroin and other drugs into Russia.

Karzai condemns Russian involvement in Afghan drug bust