“Russia will continue to provide Pakistan with aid aimed at boosting the counterterror potential of this country,” the Foreign Ministry said calling the reports "insinuations."
In March, head of US European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe Gen. Curtis Scaparrotti accused Moscow of "perhaps" supplying Taliban with weapons, at a Congress hearing.
Zamir Kabulov, the director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Second Asian Department, labeled the accusations as "absolutely false."
Afghanistan is in a state of political and social turmoil, with government forces fighting the continuing Taliban insurgency. The instability has persisted in the country since the 2001 US-led invasion to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaeda in the wake of the 9/11 attacks in the United States. The lack of control and instability turned the country into home to the largest opium poppy production and distribution network in the world.
According to the concept of the Russian foreign policy adopted in 2016, Russia seeks cooperation with Afghanistan as well as international platforms such as the United Nations, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in order to solve economic and security problems of Afghanistan as soon as possible.
