Russia has long played a double game in Afghanistan, voicing support for a U.S. push for peace talks while providing aid to the Taliban, former US officials say. - dandeluce
The Russians worry about Islamist extremism spreading from Afghanistan to Russia's southern flank, and they see the Taliban as useful for taking the fight to ISIS, Walsh said.
For Russia,"it's not even a marriage of convenience with the Taliban, it's a liaison of convenience," said Carter Malkasian, who served as an adviser to the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Joseph Dunford, and as a State Department political officer in Afghanistan. Russia has defended its outreach to the Taliban, saying it was aimed at persuading the insurgents to enter into peace talks.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, told NBC News the reports of such a program were"ridiculous."The Taliban also has denied it agreed to a bounty operation backed by Russia.The precise scale and scope of Russia's support for the Taliban has been subject to debate in recent years.
Iran, which like Pakistan shares a border with Afghanistan, exerts considerable political and economic clout in the country's west. The Iranians have chosen to overlook a history of tension with the Taliban to ensure they maintain influence and keep up the pressure on the U.S. to pull out, Malkasian said.
Russian presidential envoy to Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov gestures while speaking during an interview to the Associated Press in Moscow, on Feb. 13, 2019.Russia organized several Afghan peace conferences in Moscow in 2018 and 2019, inviting Taliban leaders in a move that sometimes irritated the Afghan government. But Zamir Kabulov, President Vladimir Putin's influential envoy to Kabul, touted Russia's more prominent profile andRussia has its own dismal history in Afghanistan.
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