US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo has threatened Russia with "paying a huge price" if reports are confirmed that it paid the Taliban to kill US military personnel in Afghanistan.
"If the Russians offer money for the murder of Americans or even people from the West, then you will have to pay a huge price. I shared this with Foreign Minister Lavrov. I know that our military also spoke with their leaders (the Russian military leadership. - ed.). We will not tolerate this, " Pompeo said in an interview, the text of which was distributed by the State Department.
In late June, The New York Times published an article citing unnamed intelligence officials claiming that Russian military intelligence allegedly offered Taliban-linked militants rewards for attacks on American soldiers in Afghanistan. The publication did not provide any evidence.
The Russian Foreign Ministry called the article a fake, and the head of the Department, Sergey Lavrov, linked these charges to the internal political struggle before the elections in the United States.
President Donald Trump, for his part, called the article "ordeded fudge". According to him, American intelligence did not consider the information of the New York Times trustworthy.
The representative of the "Taliban" (banned in Russia) Suheil Shaheen in an interview with RIA Novosti called the reports about the "deal" with Russia "erroneous and baseless information", which, according to him, was distributed by the authorities in Kabul.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Russian Foreign Ministry