“We are not linking anything. We expect the Taliban* movement to fulfill all their promises that they have previously made publicly to the international community. But by no means do we make this some kind of condition, and we do not link it to their activity, to their policy, including on the Russian direction,” Rudenko told reporters, adding that Moscow's Afghan policy won't change.
On Monday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the Taliban movement is the real authority in Afghanistan and that plans to remove it from the list of organizations banned in Russia reflect reality. Later, Special Russian Presidential Envoy for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov maintained that to continue labelling the Taliban* as a terrorist organization in Russia is obstructing the potential progress of relations between Moscow and Kabul.
*An organization under UN sanctions for terrorist activities