Taliban militants in Afghanistan have gone through many stages since 2001, when the United States overthrew the fundamentalist regime. One of these undoubtedly has a clear economic component: according to the NATO report, the group has become ultra-rich in two decades. Now, 20 years after Russia included them on its list of terrorist organizations, Putin has crossed them out.
News. Russia decided to remove the Taliban in Afghanistan from the list of terrorist organizations. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs announced a few days ago that the decision to eliminate the Taliban was taken “at the highest level”. The ministry even assured that this would be made public and official once the parliamentary procedures were completed.
On the same day, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with Taliban Acting Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi to discuss the situation in Afghanistan. Thus, Lavrov announced Moscow’s policy of strengthening cooperation with Afghanistan in the energy and agricultural sectors.
From Afghanistan to the world. Following the withdrawal of US troops, the Taliban took over Afghanistan in August 2021. After more than 20 years of international intervention, the Western-backed Afghan government collapsed within weeks. Kabul fell with little resistance on August 15, 2021, when Afghan President Ashraf Ghani fled the country. The Taliban has since regained full control of the government and imposed a regime based on strict interpretations of Islamic law.
“Image” change. We can say that in these three years, the Taliban has tried to change its image abroad by trying to be perceived in a more “normalized” way on the international stage. For example, they carried out public relations activities, especially through social networks, in which they showed a more moderate side compared to the regimes of a few years ago.
Some leaders even went further with statements about the importance of education, always despite the restrictions. Some information to put the “image change” into context: Just a few weeks ago, a rule banning women’s voices from being heard in public spaces was approved in Afghanistan.
Russian approach. Even so, no government in the world has officially recognized the Taliban since the takeover of Afghanistan. In Russia’s case, Putin labeled the Taliban a terrorist organization in 2003 and accused them of supporting pro-independence forces in Muslim-majority Chechnya in Russia’s south.
However, more than twenty years have passed and Russia’s war now continues in other regions and actors. In fact, Russia began to establish relations with them from 2021, and there are two compelling reasons that led to the removal of the Taliban from the “black” list.
A new Islamic group. The image spread all over the world. The Islamic State (IS), a rival extremist group to the Taliban, claimed responsibility for a mass shooting at a concert near Moscow in March. This terrorist act has a lot to do with Russia’s rapprochement with the Taliban. In fact, a few days ago, the director of the Federal Security Service, Alexander Bortnikov, said that the process of removing the Taliban from the terrorist list confirms mutually beneficial cooperation on counter-terrorism and anti-drug measures.
In other words. The increasing threat of terrorist groups such as IE, which continues to carry out terrorist attacks in Afghanistan, strengthened the rapprochement between Russia and the Taliban on the fight against terrorism and removed the Taliban from the terrorist list. A true meaninglessness that can only be understood in geopolitical terms.
BRICS: unity is strength. The second leg of this movement is about the West, or more accurately, creating a bloc that opposes it; because it is very likely that there will be a long-term conflict with the USA and Europe due to the war in Ukraine. Indeed, in September, the Taliban announced that they were trying to officially participate in a conference on BRICS.
Geopolitical coincidences are rare, and the founding members of the emerging economies bloc – Brazil, Russia, China and India – will meet at a Russia-hosted summit in the city of Kazan later this month. Coincidentally, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are advocating normalization of relations with Afghanistan because they have removed the Taliban from the terrorist list.
Image | Executive Office of the President of Russia, isafmedia
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Source: Xatak Android
Ashley Johnson is a science writer for “Div Bracket”. With a background in the natural sciences and a passion for exploring the mysteries of the universe, she provides in-depth coverage of the latest scientific developments.