Kabul looks safer under the Taliban than it was under Ashraf Ghani: Russia
New Delhi: The Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan on Monday stated support of the Taliban. Ambassador Dmitry Zhirnov in his statement said that “The situation is peaceful and good and everything has calmed down in the city. The situation in Kabul now under the Taliban is better than it was under (President) Ashraf Ghani.”
In support of the Taliban in Afghanistan, Dmitry Zhirnov added that “the group, still officially designated a terrorist organization in Russia, had made Kabul safer in the first 24 hours than it had been under the previous authorities.”
Russia has said it was surprised, like many other nations, by the lighting speed with which the Taliban seized control of the country even as US forces were still trying to evacuate American citizens.
Speaking to Moscow’s Ekho Moskvy radio station, Zhirnov said that “Impressed by the Taliban’s conduct so far, their approach is good, positive and business-like.”
Ghani, whose location is unknown, fled on Sunday, saying he wanted to prevent bloodshed.
According to the Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan “initially unarmed Taliban units had entered the capital and asked the government and U.S. forces to surrender their weapons. The main armed Taliban units entered later once Ghani had fled and had imposed a curfew.”
The Taliban had promised, in line with earlier agreements, to protect Russian diplomats.
On Monday, Zamir Kabulov, President Vladimir Putin’s special representative on Afghanistan said that Moscow’s long campaign to build ties with the Taliban appeared now to be paying off. We have been establishing contacts with the Taliban movement for the last seven years, not for nothing. We saw that this force would be in the end, if not completely come to power, it would play a leading role in the future of Afghanistan in any case.”
