Russian students will be relieved to hear that plans by the Federal Narcotics Control Service to have them all compulsorily tested for drug addiction have been shelved. The FNCS came up with the idea last month, noting there were nearly 30,000 known addicts among Moscow's student population of 1.2 million and arguing that it was important to monitor the health of young people likely to go into "responsible professions".

But human rights organisations that said the testing would be unconstitutional appear to have been vindicated.

The Education Committee of the State Duma or parliament concluded that it would be difficult to legislate for mandatory testing because this would violate students' constitutional rights to the presumption of innocence and privacy, according to the news website www.gazeta.ru The Ministry of Education and Science had not received any instructions to pursue the testing, it added.

The Bauman State Technical does test for drug use among its students who are headed for careers in the missile and aerospace forces, which is perhaps reasonable. But had the tests begun in autumn as planned, they would have been extended to such universities as the People's Friendship University, which teaches the humanities and attracts foreign students.

Dmitry Medvedev, almost certain to succeed Vladimir Putin after presidential elections on 2 March, has made observance of the rule of law one of the planks of his policy and there are faint hopes the authorities may gradually become less arbitrary under his rule.


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