On Monday (16 August), the Afghan-Russia relations came full circle when the Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan, Dmitry Zhirnov, praised the Taliban and said that the outfit, still designated a terrorist outfit in Russia, had made Kabul safer in the first 24 hours.
Ambassador Zhirnov then took a direct dig at ousted President Ashraf Ghani and said that Afghanistan is safer now than it was under the previous regime, reports Livemint.
It must be noted that the erstwhile Soviet Union had, in 1989, also left Afghanistan after a decade of occupation. Russia is now praising the same Mujahedeen that it had fought against.
Ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov said that he had been impressed by the Taliban’s conduct so far, describing their approach as “good, positive and business-like.”
Ambassador Zhirnov added, “The situation is peaceful and good and everything has calmed down in the city. The situation in Kabul now under the Taliban is better than it was under Ashraf Ghani.”
Ambassador Zhirnov also said, “Yesterday the regime fell like a house of cards. There was a feeling of disorder, a power vacuum, and looters came out on the streets.”
According to Zhirnov, schools in Kabul – including those for girls – had started functioning again, which was not the case when the Taliban took over in 1996.
Zamir Kabulov, President Vladimir Putin’s special representative in Afghanistan, said Moscow has been working on building a relationship with the Taliban for a long time and it is now paying off. He said, “It’s not for nothing that we’ve been establishing contacts with the Taliban movement for the last seven years.”
Kabulov added, “We saw that this force would in the end, if not completely come to power, would play a leading role in the future of Afghanistan in any case.”
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