OK. Just to clarify my attitude to Russian drug warrior Royzman

OK. a couple of hours ago I got a tweet asking why I was popularising Royzman. It was from someone I take seriously. Hence this response.

This blog post is intended to clarify my personal position towards Royzman, and to explain why I  would bother writing about Royzman at all.

a. I believe Royzman is a rogue drug warrior.  I believe Royzman's activities are based on no scientific evidence, unproven, and that he engages in vigilantism against ethnic minorities and alleged drug dealers. And most likely, that he has routinely over a number of years engaged in torture, forced detention and woefully inadequate medical care of his "clients". This assertion is based on reports on his blog and widely circulated in the Russian media recently.

 

b.  I believe there is strong international evidence  that Russian illicit drug dependency services (narcology) is unscientific, ineffective, and hostage to the same informal payment structures that affect much of post-Soviet health care in Russia, Ukraine and surrounding countries. Royzman exists in part because of the failures of Russian narcology.

c. I believe harm reduction, including the use of methadone and appropriate long term rehabilitation for people with illicit drug dependency problems has largely been sabotaged by successive Russian federal administrations., and in particular the orthodox (?/Orthodox) medical establishment and Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN). Reading comments across the Russian media, many people who are themselves drug dependent, or have drug dependent children, report feeling so powerless that they believe they have nowhere else to turn, and so take a chance with Royzman.

d. I believe Royzman runs a very effective PR machine on a national scale. On more than a national scale. I've read quite a lot about Royzman in Ukrainian and other Russophere blogs


e. Royzman has openly admitted his connections with organised crime. In addition, he was briefly associated with the oligarch Prokhorov in a strangely mismanaged political coup within one of Russia's federal (semi-) opposition parties late in 2011.  Oh, and he has a personal criminal history of fraud. And managed to skip doing mandatory military service somehow.

f. I believe the key to improving the situation with HIV and illicit drug use is changing policy.  Royzman is an ambiguous figure in the illicit drug policy landscape. I believe ignoring the "Royzman factor" in any discussion of Russian drug policy is to brush over much of the complexity of popular attitudes to illicit drug use. I don't believe it's possible to brush away all Royzman supporters as simple ORT 1 TV -watching "lokhy". How to explain Echo Moscow and Novaya Gazeta's support for Royzman? Or the Moscow Helsinki Group's support for Egor Bychkov a couple of years ago? Then again, it might be that the liberal media need Royzman as much as he needs them.  A mutually monetising relationship, as someone put to me recently.

g. Just because I find the "Royzman factor" in Russian drug policy and politics academically interesting, it doesn't mean I support his ideas. Royzman is hugely popular in Russia and almost unknown in the Anglosphere. As a theme for  a doctoral thesis, (mine) he is almost perfect. He is the Dark Knight. By that, he is almost a cartoon character. A 1970's -style macho, a poet, painter, an icon collector, a crime fighter battling with crooked cops and drug dealers etc. Who wouldn't want to write about this Dark Knight?

h. This blog is a sandbox for ideas. That's it. I'm happy to discuss what goes up here, privately,  if anyone believes what I write about Royzman is having an adverse impact on their real world activities You can send me a direct message via Twitter @aintnso.

That's it for now. I'll put in hyperlinks above to back up my statements tomorrow or the day after.