Russian President Vladimir Putin believes it is counterproductive to impose on Afghanistan forms of government and social life, which are not customary for this country.
"We must stop the irresponsible policy of imposing alien values from outside, and the desire to build democracy in other countries according to alien models, taking into account neither historical, nor national, nor religious features, completely ignoring the traditions according to which other people live. We know Afghanistan; we know it well; we have seen how this country is organized and how counterproductive it is to try to impose unfamiliar forms of government and public life on it," Putin said at a press conference following talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in the Kremlin.
The US military operation in Afghanistan cannot be called a success, Putin said.
"As for the operation in Afghanistan, of course it cannot be called a success," he said. - "But it is not in our interests to stagnate at this point now and talk about it as some kind of failure."
"We had an interest that the situation in the country was stable. It is what it is today. I think a lot of politicians in the West are coming to realize what I said in my opening remarks, which is that you cannot impose from the outside standards of political life and behavior on other countries and peoples, despite the particularities of the ethnic composition of those countries, the religious composition, their historical traditions," he said.
According to him, Russia, the US and European countries must join efforts to support the Afghan people and normalize the situation in Afghanistan. "I think this is the lesson of Afghanistan, and we together with other partners, and with the United States, with the European countries <...> must do everything in order to combine efforts today to support the Afghan people, to normalize the situation in this country and establish good neighborly relations with it," Putin said.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS