Russia demanded on Monday that the US return Afghan central bank reserves that the country had seized following the Taliban's takeover of Kabul earlier this month.
To strengthen the rate of the sinking national currency, the US must quickly unfreeze these assets Zamir Kabulov, the Kremlin's ambassador to Afghanistan stated on the state-run Rossiya 24 network. "If our Western colleagues are worried about the fate of the Afghan people, then we must not create additional problems for them by freezing gold and foreign exchange reserves," he added.
Kabulov went on to suggest that until this is done, the new Afghan government will revert to illegal opium trafficking and selling on the black market, the weaponry that the Afghan army and the US had abandoned. According to the IMF, the Afghan central bank's gross reserves were $9.4 billion at the end of April. The majority of this money is kept in countries outside of Afghanistan.
The US holds Afghanistan's reserves
The Taliban would not have access to assets, which did not specify the exact amount, stored in the United States, Washington has indicated. Afghanistan has long been the world's greatest producer of opium and heroin, with proceeds from the illicit trade assisting the Taliban in their funding efforts, as per MENAFN.
According to Global Security, 500 Russian motorized infantry forces from Russia's military facility in Tajikistan are conducting military drills in the highlands near the Afghan border. The drills also featured test-fire from an S-300 air defense system in a mock attack on the facility.
Except for the aforementioned practice, Russia has conducted two sets of drills along the Afghan border so far this month. The Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), a post-Soviet security bloc run by Moscow, will undertake another drill in Kyrgyzstan, which contains a Russian military airfield, next month.
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said last week that Moscow will cooperate more closely with CSTO member states as the US departure from Afghanistan raises regional security threats. Separately, the Russian embassy in Kabul said that additional evacuation flights would be available for Russian citizens and residents, as well as nationals of CSTO member states.
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Russia builds normal ties with the Taliban
Zamir Kabulov, Russia's Special Presidential Representative for Afghanistan, said Moscow is striving to mend ties with the Taliban and would not impose any foreign values. According to the official, Russia respects the Afghan people's right to their definition of democracy; and the country's historic institutions may be regarded as "conditionally democratic."
Per SIFY, Kabulov did not rule out further US attacks in Afghanistan but asked the West to help normalize the country's position through humanitarian aid rather than creating extra barriers like blocking Afghanistan's gold and foreign exchange reserves.
The official underlined Russia's willingness to join any international initiatives aimed at guaranteeing "regional social and economic rehabilitation." The announcement came when Afghanistan was in the midst of a chaotic and dangerous situation.
More than 170 people were killed in a devastating attack on the Kabul airport on Thursday, including 13 US troops. In reaction, the US military launched a drone attack against ISIS-K, an Afghan affiliate of the Islamic State group, in Nangarhar province of eastern Afghanistan on Friday, killing two "high-profile" militants and injuring another.
On Sunday, another airstrike was launched in Kabul against a suspected ISIS-K vehicle. Taliban senior commander Abdul Haq Wasiq has condemned US airstrikes in Afghanistan, calling them a breach of the US-Taliban peace agreement.
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