Russia has already made a principal decision to remove the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan (IEA) from its list of banned groups, with certain legal procedures pending, Russian Special Presidential Representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov has said.
Kabulov said that Russia’s Foreign Ministry jointly with the Russia’s Federal Security Service and a number of other Russian agencies are putting finishing legal touches on the removal of IEA from the list of banned groups.
“A principal decision on this has already been made by the Russian leadership. But the process should be carried out within the Russian legal framework,” the Russian envoy said following the latest round of consultations on Afghanistan in Moscow, TASS news agency reported.
Russian authorities just need to bring the process in line with federal laws, Kabulov explained. “Hopefully, the final decision will be announced soon,” he added.
Earlier on Friday, Director of the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) Alexander Bortnikov said that work to remove IEA from the list of banned groups was in the final stages in Russia.
According to the FSB chief, Russia can see that the IEA is “ready to fight” the Khorasan branch of Daesh, which he claimed to be “getting material support from the West which uses the terrorist group’s capacity to carry out subversive false-flag operations on our soil.”