Russia Rejects Repeated Accusations of Supporting Taliban

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation stated that parties claiming that Russia is assisting the Taliban are attempting to cover up their own support for terrorists, primarily ISIS militants.

In a statement, Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs said, “Sar-e Pol Governor Mohammad Zahir Wahdat confirmed on the record information about the night landing of two helicopters without identification marks in extremist-controlled territory in the Sayyad District. They went to the government air force base in Mazar-e-Sharif that also accommodates the NATO military base, Camp Marmal.”

“The facts we have at our disposal show that the reality is completely different. Earlier the Afghan website carried an article about the detention of three US servicemen with a consignment of arms in the Kokistanat District of the northern province of Sar-e Pol last January. ISIS commandos who were going to buy these arms from the Americans were caught at the same time with a huge sum of money. However, later on the US servicemen were released from custody and transferred to their command, while all documents, including interrogation records, money and arms mysteriously disappeared,” the statement said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation in a part of its statement added, “Even stranger is the release of Azizullah from the US Bagram Prison near Kabul in the autumn of 2016. He is the son of Tahir Yuldashev, head of the terrorist Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU). Later on Azizullah was moved to the Darzab District of the Jowzjan Province in the north of Afghanistan, where he headed a unit of 25 militants that left the IMU for ISIS. As a result, Azizullah’s unit subjugated armed formations of the Taliban in some districts of the provinces of Jowzjan, Faryab and Sar-e Pol, compelled the local population to swear loyalty to ISIS and established a second open bridgehead of ISIS in the north of Afghanistan (after the first one in Nangarhar).”

Ariana requested comment on the Russian statement from the Afghan Presidential Palace or the Afghan Ministry of Foreign Affairs. However, both entities decline to respond.

Earlier, the Director of the U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency said that while there were indications that Russia had offered some support to Taliban militants in Afghanistan, he had not seen physical evidence of a transfer of weapons or money.

“We have seen indication that they offered some level of support but I have not seen real physical evidence of weapons or money being transferred,” Marine Lieutenant General Vincent Stewart said at a U.S. Senate hearing.

Last month the head of U.S. and international forces in Afghanistan said he would not refute reports that Russia was providing support, including weapons, to the Taliban.