WASHINGTON, April 30 (RIA Novosti) – US Gen. John Kelly, who is in charge of cooperation with Latin American on anti-drug and crime matters, told RIA Novosti Wednesday he was surprised by Washington’s decision to impose sanctions on his Russian counterpart, Viktor Ivanov.
“Honest to God, it surprises me,” Gen. Kelly said.
Russia’s Federal Drug Control Service Director Viktor Ivanov has been targeted for US sanctions, including a travel ban, after being earmarked by the United States as belonging to President Putin’s “inner circle.”
Asked for his response to the US sanctions against the director of Russia’s anti-drug agency, the head of the US military’s Southern Command said it came to him as a surprise.
Kelly is responsible for establishing partnerships to combat transnational organized crime and leading efforts to halt drug trafficking.
The general has recently been called to testify before a joint subcommittee hearing of the House Foreign Affairs and Transportation Committees on confronting transnational drug smuggling.
The hearing focused primarily on anti-drug partnerships with Latin American countries, as well as inter-agency challenges resulting from recent budget cuts, which have already limited the resources available for effective surface interdiction. This affects regional partnerships and weakens US defenses against transnational criminal networks, according to testimony given at the joint hearing.
While Eurasian partnerships were not discussed in the hearing, Gen. Kelly’s written testimony called attention to efforts by Russia and China to combat drug trafficking and crime in the western hemisphere.
Kelly said that Russia and China’s expanding relationships "are not necessarily at our expense."
He warned that the United States must remain engaged or face "a relative but accelerated decline of trust in our reliability and commitment to the region."
There still remains a strong focus on countering criminal networks and the illegal drug trade on a global scale. This network reaches both hemispheres and includes the trade of drugs, human beings, cash, weapons, and even weapons of mass destruction.
“The whole thing is a network – everything is a network. It’s a transnational organized crime network, and anyone that’s fighting any part of that network is a friend of mine,” Gen. Kelly concluded.
