Context: Long-form magazine article written with content collaboration from Arizona’s Honorary Consul General of Romania and Director of Romanian and Central European Cultural Collaborativ e School of Letters and Cultures Russian Exploitation of Ukraine’s Drug Addiction Infrastructure The territorial aggression displayed by Russia in Ukraine has included a desire to modify the ideology of the country’s addiction recovery policies, and is currently imposing the “Russian way”. The destruction and replacement of Ukraine’s addiction rehabilitation infrastructure, a system that has managed to treat a significant amount of addicts in a region where 3 to 5 percent of the population is using IV-based drugs at any time, has been dismantled and essentially replaced. The aforementioned “Russian way” is defined by one reporter as such: "This [removal of Ukrainian resources] was, according to activists, patients, NGOs... part of a plan to transition to a "Russian way" of dealing with drug addiction, which can amount to no services and no help" (Clavarino). By exploiting one of Ukraine’s largest societal problems and inserting their own cultural narrative to its “solution”, Russia has gained sociopolitical possession of Ukraine’s most vulnerable population and can only gain from the devastation caused by their drug addiction. It is widely known that severe levels of drug addiction have been a thorn in the side of Ukraine. Treating addiction as a medical issue and treating addicts as people who deserve to attempt detoxification treatment was at the core of Ukraine’s treatment structure. The “Russian way” of treatment, which has replaced most of Ukraine’s system, treats addicts as miscreants with psychological problems in need of further prescription drug-based treatment. Thanks to the “Russian way”, hundreds of Ukrainian addicts have died after being denied methadone, a successful heroin replacement drug immediately outlawed by Russian authorities after their takeover of Eastern Ukraine. One news source states that “... the head of Russia ’s Federal Drug Control Service... attacked the civil society members who were complaining about the MAT shut-down, claiming they were “provoking anti-Russian protests...MAT users were scared that a sudden break in their regime could kill them” (Bird). One former addict detoxing over an extended period of time with the help of smaller and smaller doses of methadone (MAT), was able to obtain a job and begin returning to a normal and productive life before the drug was outlawed. He commented that former heroin addicts, now under methadone treatment, will absolutely return to IV drugs when methadone stores disappear. One Russian politician “ framed MAT as part of a corrupt Western attempt to infiltrate Russia’s right t o decide its own health policy”. Because Russia does not condone the perspective that drug users can be helped or cured without intensive (often primitive, semi-experimental, and even abusive) psychological treatment, Ukraine’s system has been changed entirely by new legislation and drastic ideological shifts. It is widely known that drug addiction has been an extreme weakness in Ukraine’s social infrastructure and that Russia, along with Eastern separatists, are looking for any possible foothold in the country’s political and cultural landscapes. Forbidden to defend the addicts who deserve humanitarian treatment, Ukrainians in the medical field are watching as their rehabilitation system is deconstructed further and further by Eastern forces savvy enough to dissolve a country from within. The inflation of drug addiction, a phenomenon essentially guaranteed by the new treatment system and indifference to or contempt for non-separatist Ukrainians will further rescind any flexibility from which to build new solutions. One addict recounts that he “escaped... harassed by mortars and grenades, because people like him [me] are not wanted there now that the city is under the control of pro-Russian separatists.... This is also part of the war, it is not only about the deaths in the trenches to the East" (Clavarino). The duplicitous strategies of the Russian way within regions Russia wants to obtain and control are subtle to many, as most outsiders concentrate on the previously mentioned “deaths in the trenches in the East”. High levels of drug addiction remain in separatist-controlled regions, and observers predict a possible return to the intense IV drug epidemic of the 1990s in these areas. While allegiance to Russia’s ideology is strong in the East, the crises faced in the formerly Ukrainian region remain, with addiction and other embedded societal issues being overlooked despite promises of drastic change and a strong ruling hand. The deaths in the East are not just those killed in “traditional” warfare: they include Ukrainians, separatists or not, dying from drug addiction as a result of the Russian way. People observing the shutdown of Ukrainian addiction rehabilitation by Russia and pro- Russian separatists often see the issue as an “act of war”, an attack that belongs among those perpetrated with mortars or missiles. The deaths of addicts that result from what is essentially the trickle-down dehumanization of people with drug problems are harmful beyond the abuse of Ukraine’s existing base of drug users. In large part due to the separatist activity in the East, new drugs have been introduced to all of Ukraine. One writer states that "The militants’ harsh penalties, coupled with unfamiliar drugs on the streets and dwindling access to [Ukrainian] harm-reduction programs...[presents] a huge blow to the survival rate and health of addicts in separatist regions” (Wilcox). The enforcement of authoritarian drug laws that punish users instead of addressing the drug problem itself is not just a poor strategy, but also an example of the disbursement of a new cultural ideology and as one way Eastern militant-led action is energetically finding its way into the rest of the country. If we evaluate the nature of this enforcement, calling it an “act of war” seems extremely appropriate. The removal of programs undermined an already vulnerable country and resulted in the deaths of hundreds, soon thousands, (some will say “indirectly”), militants on the ground made the region even more ripe for drastic destabilization via force and intimidation, and ultimately made way for the insertion of Russian ideology where Ukrainian functionality used to exist. This is a form of war, as untraditional as it may seem, and is characteristic of a time when many deaths can be swept under the rug if the dead themselves are villainized. The drug crisis peaking in the Eastern region as the rest of Ukraine was beginning to be affected by the dismantling of its addiction programs has resulted in the growth of the substitute drug market. Drugs containing opiates (often used as a replacement by separatists who were nursing a heroin addiction but had no access to the actual drug or rehabilitation beyond the form offered by Russia) and illegal prescription medications have made their way across all of Ukraine. Again, the major disruption in the country resulting from actions by Russian separatists has created a crack in Ukraine’s armor. While effective drug addiction treatment dwindled and MAT was being outlawed, new drugs were entering parts of the country that had been overwhelmed by heroin for decades. More vulnerable than ever, Ukraine has been tasked with deflecting these new drugs and saving the lives of addicts expelled from rehab and medical programs simultaneously. This movement of new drugs from the East “...may set up east Ukraine for a devastating return to the 1990s, when high-risk drug use and HIV and other infections claimed many lives” (Clavarino). Before Eastern interference, Ukraine’s anti-drug system was surprisingly progressive for country with its geographical placement. The government funded methadone supplies that allowed heroin addicts to attempt sobriety and other services that treated addiction the same way any government would address a widespread medical crisis cushioned the effect of the heroin epidemic. Practical treatment allowed for individual addicts to succeed even if others did not, a phenomenon made possible by an ideology that placed a degree of trust in the hands of addicts who sought out care. This ideology is now gone, and has been replaced by one that outlaws MAT due to its supposed “Western influence” and treats addicts “psychologically” instead of allowing them medicine that can facilitate a full detoxification process. However, this ideology and the deaths that will result from it will only help the effort to destabilize and overtake Ukraine. As an outside force gunning to obtain a country that is already struggling economically and politically, Russia’s takeover of Ukraine’s vital drug treatment infrastructure counts as an advantage. Unfortunately, its new access to the country’s vulnerable and potentially easy-to- manipulate addict population may become even more of an achievement. References 1. Bird, Michael. "Meet the Victims of Russia's War on Methadone." TheInfluence . 24 Mar. 2016. Web. 06 Dec. 2016. 2. Clavarino, Tomaso. "How the War in Ukraine Is Causing a Rise in HIV Infections”.| VICE. United States." VICE . N.p., 2016. Web. 07 Dec. 2016. 3. Wilcox, P.J. "Drug Addiction In Ukraine, How Its Now Handled, Its Horrendous." LinkedIn. 3 Mar. 2015. Web.