Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu said on Tuesday that the United States should pay for the reconstruction of Afghanistan, which is now ruled by the fanatical Islamists of the Taliban as a human rights nightmare.
“We discussed further cooperation across all areas. This includes economic issues, as well as detailed discussions on transportation. We addressed everything related to trade and discussed a major energy deal, all of which have promising prospects,” Shoigu said after a meeting with Taliban leaders in Kabul.
“The topic of the United States was also raised, as it continues to plunder everything and everyone with impunity. The issue concerned the return of assets and funds that belong solely to the Afghan people. As with Libya and Syria, the U.S. refuses to return them,” Shoigu continued.
“In my opinion, the United States should invest in the reconstruction of Afghanistan after everything it has done and abandoned there. This applies to everything: the needs of the people, rebuilding facilities, and restoring infrastructure,” he said.
Shoigu said Taliban leaders asked for help lifting the pressure of U.S. sanctions during their meeting, and he told them Russia was in their corner.
“Let me confirm our readiness to establish a constructive political dialogue between our countries and among the goals would be providing an impulse for the process of a settlement among Afghans,” he said.
The Taliban is technically still classified as a terrorist organization in Russia, but last month the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that a decision has been “taken at the highest level” to remove it from Moscow’s list of banned terrorists.
Russia added the Taliban to the list in 2003 because it supported Islamist separatists in the North Caucasus. Until recently, Moscow seemed to be worried that support might resume, or the North Caucasian separatists might learn dangerously useful lessons from President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal and the Taliban’s conquest of Kabul.
Russia needed friends after alienating much of the civilized world by invading Ukraine in 2022, and President Vladimir Putin’s desire for more allies in Asia appears to have quelled any lingering concerns he had about the Taliban.
Shoigu said on Tuesday that enhanced economic and political cooperation with the Taliban is on Moscow’s agenda. Taliban Interior Ministry spokesman Abdul Mateen Qani said his regime also desires closer relations.
“In this meeting, the two sides held comprehensive discussions on political, security, and economic issues. Mr. Shoigu pledged that the process of removing the Islamic Emirate’s name, previously referred to as the Taliban Movement, from the Russian blacklist is in its final stages,” Qani said.
“The visit of the Russian delegation to Afghanistan, their discussions on political and economic issues, and the announcement to remove the current Afghan government’s name from the list of terrorist organizations are all positive developments,” political analyst Zalmai Afghanyar told Afghanistan’s Tolo News.
Tolo News reported Shoigu “expressed Russia’s desire for Afghanistan to regain its position as an observer member of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization.”
Afghanistan has been trying to gain full membership in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) since long before the Taliban takeover, because even the U.S.-backed civilian government saw the SCO as a vehicle for developing closer relations with China and Russia. Afghanistan gained observer status in 2012 under then-President Hamid Karzai, but that status was suspended after the Biden withdrawal disaster in 2021.
Russia, like China, covets Afghanistan’s mineral resources. At an economic forum in Kazan, Russia, in May, Taliban Trade Minister Nooruddin Azizi invited Russia to invest in metal and gem mining.
“In Afghanistan we have very large reserves of lithium and copper, as well as mineral resources such as precious stones. There is good potential for the extraction of these metals and minerals, and I hope that Russian companies will invest in Afghanistan in this area,” Azizi said.
If Russia removes the Taliban from its terrorist list, the next step toward gaining access to Afghanistan’s valuable minerals could involve Moscow becoming the first country to officially recognize the Taliban government as legitimate. Not even rapacious China has taken that step yet, and Russia might be hesitating for similar reasons: because not even the resource-hungry Axis of Tyranny super-powers trust the Taliban to keep its promises.
“The Taliban are always very willing to accept advance concessions, but things get complicated when it comes to reciprocating them,” Counter Extremism Project (CEP) analyst Hans-Jakob Schindler observed in June, when the Taliban sent a delegation to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.
“It hardly matters whether Russia crosses the Taliban off its terror list or not, as long as the United Nations Security Council in New York keeps the Taliban on it sanctions list,” Schindler added, pointing out another roadblock to Russia offering a trade of diplomatic legitimacy for mineral rights.