News Report: Putin's Envoy to Afghanistan Denies Claims of Russia 'Providing Aid' to Taliban

President Vladimir Putin's envoy to Afghanistan has again denied claims by US officials that Russia allegedly provides aid to the Taliban terrorist group despite no evidence provided to support the statements.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russia is not providing military or financial assistance to the outlawed Taliban terrorist group, such claims are irresponsible and groundless, Zamir Kabulov, the Russian presidential envoy to Afghanistan, told Sputnik.

"We consider this claim irresponsible. We have repeatedly stated that we provided neither military nor financial aid to the Taliban movement," Kabulov, who is also the head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Second Asian Department, said.

He noted that Afghanistan’s fight against the Taliban is in stalemate and called for launching a national dialogue. "It is becoming more and more evident that there is a stalemate in Kabul’s struggle against the Taliban, in which neither side us able to shift the situation to its advantage. In these conditions, it is necessary to make the most active efforts to search for ways to launch the intra-Afghan dialogue."

News Story: Moscow Not About To Challenge U.S In Afghanistan - Envoy

By Samim Faramarz

The Russian Ambassador to Kabul Alexander Mantytskiy said on Wednesday at a press conference in Kabul that Moscow is not interested in challenging the United States and NATO in Afghanistan nor is it following a hidden agenda regarding the country. 

“We do not have any hidden agenda in Afghanistan; similarly, we do not have the will to compete with the United States in Afghanistan,” Mantytskiy told the press conference.

The Russian envoy defended his country’s stance regarding Moscow’s contact with the Taliban and said their aim is to help ensure peace and stability in Afghanistan.

Mantytskiy did however raise the issue of the U.S bombing Achin in Nangarhar last week. 

Read the full story at TOLOnews

News Report: US Wary of Russian Role in Afghanistan as Moscow Holds Talks

Cindy Saine, Ayaz Gul

STATE DEPARTMENT / ISLAMABAD — As the United States and Russia clash on Syria, another war-torn nation could play out as a renewed theater for the U.S.-Russia rivalry: Afghanistan.

Thursday, U.S. forces dropped what was being called the largest non-nuclear bomb on a reported Islamic State militant complex in the eastern Afghan province of Nangarhar.

The U.S. strike came a day before Russia is to host multi-nation talks on prospects for Afghan security and national reconciliation, the third such round since December.

Eleven countries are set to take part in Friday's discussions in Moscow, including Afghanistan, China, Iran, Pakistan and India. Former Soviet Central Asian states have been invited to attend for the first time.

The Afghan Taliban said Thursday that they would not take part.

"We cannot call these negotiations [in Moscow] as a dialogue for the restoration of peace in Afghanistan," Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told VOA. "This meeting stems from political agendas of the countries who are organizing it. This has really nothing to do with us, nor do we support it."

The spokesman reiterated insurgents' traditional stance that U.S.-led foreign troops would have to leave Afghanistan before any conflict resolution talks could be initiated.

The United States was also invited to the Moscow talks, but Washington declined, saying it had not been informed of the agenda beforehand and was unclear about the meeting's motives.

News Report: Afghan Official - Russian Advisers Help Taliban in Contested Province

Noor Zahid

Russia's role in Afghanistan was questioned again Tuesday when the provincial police chief in Uruzgan told Afghan media that intelligence reports showed visiting Russian generals were providing Taliban militants with weapons and training.

"Eleven Russians, including two women, dressed in doctor's uniforms and guarded by four armed Taliban, along with an Afghan translator, have been spotted in various parts of the province," Ghulam Farooq Sangari, Uruzgan police chief, told VOA's Afghan service. "They have been enticing people against the government, providing training and teaching how to assemble land mines."

Russian military advisers have been spotted twice recently near Tirinkot, the Uruzgan capital, Haji Abdul Bari, a tribal elder in the province, told VOA.

Taliban connections with Russia have increasingly come under the spotlight as Moscow seeks to increase its influence in the nation it once occupied and to counter Islamic State expansion from Afghanistan to neighboring Central Asian countries.

News Story: Russia Rejects Claims Of Meddling In Afghanistan's Affairs

The Russian Embassy in Kabul on Monday rejected reports of Moscow’s support of the Taliban and said the claims were groundless.  

In a statement issued by the embassy, they said: “The Embassy of the Russian Federation notes the continuing series of groundless accusations against Russia about alleged support of the Taliban movement by Moscow.

“It is surprising that statesmen, deputies and high-ranking police officers based on rumors and conjectures and without providing the public any evidence allow themselves to publicly make irresponsible accusations against Russia in financing and supporting terrorism.”

The embassy named numerous reports and stated they were baseless. Among the mentioned reports was the most recent that claimed a high-ranking Russian delegation had visited a Taliban base in Waziristan in Pakistan as well as earlier reports that with Russia’s help, bases had been set up along the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border to service and repair the armor and vehicles of the Taliban.

Russia rejected all these claims and said in their statement “a staged campaign of the so-called black PR people is clearly visible who are quite professionally able to distract from the failures of their own employers and divert attention to a non-existent enemy.

“The Embassy of the Russian Federation in Afghanistan once again emphasizes that all accusations of financial and logistical support of the Taliban movement are simply not true and at the present difficult stage of finding ways to establish a peace process such actions of black PR people are counterproductive.”

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News Story: Russia Sees No Military Solution To Afghanistan’s Problem

By Mir Abed Joyenda

The Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan, Alexander Mantytskiy, has said that Afghanistan’s problem cannot be solved through military solutions.

He said representatives of 12 regional countries will encourage the Afghan government and Taliban to hold face-to-face talks at an upcoming conference in Moscow.

“There are main points to discuss to work out a regional approach to the solution of the Afghan problem and to send a strong signal to the Taliban movement that there is no military solution for the Afghan problem,” the ambassador told TOLOnews on Friday.

According to Mantytskiy, Taliban has not been invited to this upcoming meeting.

“Regarding the invitation of the Taliban movement, no such type of invitation was given. It means that only representatives of the government will participate,” he stated.

Read the full story at TOLOnews

News Story: Ghani Calls On Jihadi Leaders To Stand By Security Forces

President Ashraf Ghani on Tuesday addressed guests attending the 28th anniversary ceremony to mark the withdrawal of Soviet troops from Afghanistan and said “yesterday was about freedom, today is about development.”

Ghani also called on all Jihadi leaders to maintain their support for the security forces, "who are today's Mujahideen."

Ghani said that by signing the recent peace agreement with Hizb-e-Islami, government is paving the way for “unhappy Mujahideen brothers to return to their country.”He said Jihad had been carried out at the time of the Soviet occupation to ensure the country's freedom and development but later efforts were made by others to destroy the progress.

Ghani also stated there is a strong will among the people to overcome the crisis in the country but that all Afghans "have the right to be proud about the Jihad".

Also addressing guests, Abdul Rauf Ibrahimi, speaker of the Wolesi Jirga (Lower House of Parliament) said that Russia should not repeat the mistakes of the Soviet Union in terms of meddling in Afghanistan’s affairs.

He implied Moscow was supporting the Taliban.

Read the full story at TOLOnews