Markevich Presented CSTO PA Acts on Combating Drugs and Rehabilitation of Nazism

At a CSTO PA Council meeting in Moscow, Aleksandr Markevich, Chairman of the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly Standing Commission on Socioeconomic and Legal Affairs and deputy Chairman of the Standing Commission on National Security of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus presented the Model Law on the Prevention of Non-Medical Use of Drugs, Recommendations on Liability for the Actions Related to Nazism Rehabilitation and Distortion the Historical Truth, as well as the model guidelines for competent authorities

Aleksandr Markevich said that the CSTO Parliamentary Assembly had also established an approximate list of measures aimed at preventing non-medical drug use, disclosed their content and presented a procedure for organizing the drug treatment for non-medical drugs users. The CSTO PA also established the basis for international cooperation and coordination of drug prevention activities.

“The adoption of the model law will contribute to increasing the effectiveness of non-medical drug use prevention activities, formation of coordinated legal positions of the CSTO Member States, approximation and harmonization of national laws and coordination of the relevant law enforcement practice,” Mr Markevich said.

Recommendations on liability for the actions related to Nazism rehabilitation and distortion of historical truth, according to him, have been developed to preserve the historical memory of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, to protect the historical truth, to preserve and support traditional spiritual and moral values, which are of fundamental importance for all CSTO countries, strengthening their national and civil identity.

The adoption of the recommendations, the parliamentarian believes, will contribute to the further creation of the necessary conditions for the progressive development of cooperation in countering any manifestations of extremism, neo-Nazism, racial discrimination, aggressive nationalism, anti-Semitism and xenophobia, attempts to falsify history and use it to foment confrontation and revanchism in world politics, attempts to revise the outcome of the Second World War.

“The development of the draft model guidelines for the competent bodies of the CSTO Member States in the field of investigation and intelligence support for collective security is connected with the fact that countering collective security challenges and threats is impossible without systematically organizing investigation and intelligence support. Destructive forces are trying to actively use terrorism, extremism, illegal trafficking of drugs and weapons, illegal migration, transnational organized crime and IT crime,” said Aleksandr Markevich.

As you may recall, the model guidelines are aimed at significantly increasing the effectiveness of the competent bodies’ activities to decriminalize the entire CSTO area of responsibility, to systematically counter internal challenges and threats to national and collective security from the leaders of organized criminal terrorist and extremist formations as well as other persons preparing, committing or perpetrating serious and grave crimes.

Aleksandr Markevich noted that the proposed legal, organizational and tactical measures are linked to the development of the information society in the CSTO Member States on the basis of mastering new information and communication technologies, which creates unique opportunities for the effective implementation of operational and investigative activities by the competent bodies.

All the documents were adopted at the meeting unanimously. The work of the Parliamentary Assembly is based on the principle of consensus.