The actions of the Taliban (banned in Russia) in Afghanistan pose no direct threat to Russia, Russian Ambassador in Kabul Dmitry Zhirnov said.
"There is no direct threat [to Russia] from the Taliban," he said on Monday in an interview with Russia-24 television channel, responding to a question about whether the Taliban's actions could threaten Russia directly.
According to the diplomat, the militants do not have enough forces to take over the capital and major cities of Afghanistan.
At the same time, Zhirnov noted that the situation in Kabul remains turbulent. "There is an increased terrorist danger here, and it is clear that this is the capital of a country that is at war, but since May there has not been any qualitative change for the worse in Kabul," the ambassador explained.
Zhirnov added that representatives of Russia, the United States, China and Pakistan are working through the mechanism of the expanded troika to resolve the situation in the country. "We are holding the line for the conflicting parties to start real result-oriented negotiations that would lead to an end to the civil war," he assured.
On the conflict
Tajikistan's State Committee for National Security (SCNS) reported on June 22 that an armed Taliban attack on the Sherkhon Bandar border commissariat in Afghanistan's Kunduz province resulted in 134 Afghan government troops retreating into Tajikistan. All of them later returned home and were flown to Kabul on a separate special flight.
Also, on June 27, a group of 17 Afghan army soldiers, after an armed clash with radical Taliban units in Balkh Province, retreated and crossed the border into Tajikistan at the Shahritus post. Tajik border guards let the Afghan soldiers enter their territory.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: Creative Commons
Based on materials from TASS