Russia working with Central Asian allies to resolve Afghan crisis, top diplomat says

MOSCOW, September 1. /TASS/. Moscow is working with its allies in Central Asia to resolve the Afghan crisis, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said speaking before the students and teaching staff of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s MGIMO University on Wednesday. "After the pullout of NATO troops from Afghanistan, the most important thing for us is to ensure the security of our allies, the Central Asian states <...>. The security of the southern boundaries of the Russian Federation directly depends on this. I really hope that together we will manage to agree on such external steps that will facilitate the creation of conditions for shaping a real national leadership in Afghanistan. We are actively working in this direction now," he explained. After the Biden administration had announced the end of Washington’s 20-year-long military operation in Afghanistan and the launch of its troop pullout, the Taliban (outlawed in Russia) embarked on an offensive against Afghan government forces. On August 15, Taliban fighters swept into Kabul without encountering any resistance, and gained full control over the Afghan capital within a few hours. Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani said he had stepped down to prevent any bloodshed and subsequently fled the country. At the end of August, the US completed both the evacuation of civilians from Kabul and its entire military mission to Afghanistan, ending its longest foreign military campaign. Read more