The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Minister of Justice said that they have sent an official proposal to Putin, asking him to exclude the Taliban from the list of terrorist organizations in Russia.
Kremlin media reports that the Taliban can be removed from the list of terrorist organizations only by decision of the Russian Supreme Court.
Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov said that the possible exclusion of the Taliban from the list of terrorist and banned organizations in Russia reflects objective reality.
“The Taliban are a real power in Afghanistan, we care about this country, this is a process of realizing reality,” Lavrov said.
In August 2021, the U.S. finally withdrew its troops from Afghanistan, allowing the Taliban terrorists to seize full control of the country.
Since then, Russian authorities have been developing ties with representatives of the terrorist movement. Taliban representatives regularly travel to Russia and attend official state events. Thus, on May 15, the Taliban attended the forum “Russia - Islamic World: KazanForum”.
In 2019, a conference was held in Moscow, which was attended by, among others, representatives of the Taliban and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.
It also became known today that the Kremlin sent an official invitation to the Taliban to participate in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
“Taliban” - Islamist religious and political paramilitary movement, classified in some countries as a terrorist organization. It was added to the list of terrorist organizations in Russia in 2003. It is also recognized as a terrorist organization in Canada, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkey. The Taliban is under UN sanctions. The Taliban's power is not recognized by any UN member state.
The Taliban are the largest producers and distributors of opium in the world. In 2019-2020, in the Taliban-controlled territories, the area of land used for opium cultivation increased by more than a third. The UN estimates that the Taliban earned 460 million dollars from the opium trade in 2020.
Since returning to power, the Taliban have made several claims of fighting drugs. On April 3, 2022, the terrorist movement's supreme leader Haibatullah Akhundzada banned poppy cultivation and drug trafficking throughout Afghanistan. However, in the same year they released almost all drug dealers from prisons and since then opium crops in Afghanistan have increased several times. The profits from the Taliban's state-run drug business have also increased from $425 million in 2021 to $1.4 billion in 2022.
Today, Afghanistan's share of the global opium market is about 80%.
And here's a little more on what Taliban crimes the Kremlin wants to forget. The Taliban are behind dozens of terrorist attacks and hostage-taking.
The last major attack was in January 2018, when militants attacked the Intercontinental Hotel in Kabul - killing up to 43 people.
On September 4, 2012, a suicide bombing at a funeral in Afghanistan's Nangarhar province killed at least 20 people and injured more than 50. All victims of the attack were civilians. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack.
On October 31, 2011, a suicide bombing in Kandahar killed 3 UN employees, a local police chief and several other people. “The Taliban claimed responsibility for organizing the attack.
Afghanistan is a real trading partner for Russia, from 2022 to 2023 the volume of trade has increased fivefold, up to $1 billion, points out the publication “We Can Explain” with reference to political scientist Ivan Preobrazhensky. It is a market for oil products, and Russia is interested in rare-earth metals for the military-industrial complex.
Although the Kremlin has stopped considering the Taliban as terrorists, several journalists continue to be imprisoned for “justifying terrorism” because of open calls for rapprochement between Russia and the Taliban.
