The lack of funds in the Afghan treasury may push the new Afghan authorities to trade drugs and weapons, Russian president Vladimir Putin said.
"There is a danger that the lack of funds in Afghanistan's treasury may push those who control the country today to make money from drug and arms trafficking, as has been the case, incidentally, all along," the Russian head of state said, speaking on Friday at the joint meeting of leaders of the Collective security treaty organization (CSTO) and the Shanghai cooperation organization (SCO).
He pointed to the fact that after the US military left the country, a large number of weapons worth billions of dollars was left there. The president noted that the Taliban (banned in Russia) officially declared its intention to fight drug trafficking and other crime as well. "By the way, in the old days they fought drug trafficking, and we have to admit, quite successfully. Let's see what happens now," Putin said.
Russia supports the idea of convening an international donor conference on Afghanistan under the auspices of the United Nations, the president said.
Putin recalled that earlier he had already come up with an initiative to resume the SCO-Afghanistan contact group, created at one time to work with Afghan partners. "According to statements of the Taliban itself, they consider the reconstruction of the destroyed infrastructure in the country to be an important task. Obviously, everybody understands this and everybody in Afghanistan understands that the Taliban themselves can hardly do this by themselves," summed up the Russian President when speaking about the relevance of the donor conference.
Unfreezing of Afghan funds
The Russian president called for thinking about the gradual unfreezing of Afghanistan's funds in international structures.
"I think it makes sense to work also with the United States [of America], other Western countries to gradually unfreeze Afghanistan's reserves and restore programs through the World bank and the International monetary fund," he said.
The Russian leader stated that the situation in Afghanistan's economy is extremely difficult, as all funds in foreign banks are frozen. He cited the UN estimate that half of Afghans need humanitarian assistance just to survive, and one in three is deprived of access to food.
"We assume that the bulk of the costs associated with the post-conflict reconstruction of Afghanistan should be borne by the United States and NATO countries, which - this is an obvious thing - are directly responsible for the heavy consequences of their long-standing presence in this country," Putin stressed.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS