Zamir Kabulov, director of the Russian Foreign Ministry's Second Asian Department, firmly declared that these accusations are "absolutely false" and remarked that such fabrications are "designed to justify the failure of the US military and politicians in the Afghan campaign."
Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov also pointed out that the accusations do not contain "a single fact, specific figures or documents" but are merely "the same slogans, only now in new covers".
General Scaparrotti also neglected to mention that in 1980s the CIA provided extensive financial and ideological support to a host of anti-Soviet Afgan militant groups, including the elements which later formed the Taliban movement.
