Russia reaching out to Taliban

[Insight]

http://neurope.eu/article/russia-reaching-out-to-taliban/

Published 17:48 January 25, 2016
Updated 17:48 January 25, 2016

Russia reaching out to Taliban

By NEOnline | TB

Russia has reportedly reached out to the Taliban in Afghanistan in order to team up against Islamic State in that country.
As reported by EurasiaNet, the Kremlin’s special envoy to Afghanistan told Russia’s Interfax news agency last month that Russian interests “objectively coincide” with those of the Taliban in the fight against Islamic State, and that Moscow has channels for information sharing with the Taliban.
“The Taliban now for the most part act like a national liberation movement. For them the Americans are occupiers, who illegally occupy their homeland and threaten their cultural and religious traditions,” Zamir Kabulov said.
The notion of cooperating, in whatever form, with the Taliban against Islamic State would represent a shift. Russian officials have consistently equated the Taliban with Islamic State, according to EurasiaNet.
American Central Asia analyst Noah Tucker in an interview with Asia Plus last week expressed confusion at Russia’s strategy. He said: “[I]n Syria and now potentially in Afghanistan the Russian government is doing exactly the thing it criticises the US and Nato so much for doing – intervening in a foreign conflict. If Nato intervention in these conflicts won’t fix them – and I agree that it hasn’t, I don’t understand how Russia could genuinely believe that their own intervention will.”

[Insight]

This official statement represents a major shift in Russian policy towards Afghanistan. I think China is behind this.

“The Taliban now for the most part act like a national liberation movement. For them the Americans are occupiers, who illegally occupy their homeland and threaten their cultural and religious traditions,” Zamir Kabulov said.