Russia supplied arms only to the legitimate government of Afghanistan and not to the Taliban militant group (outlawed in Russia) as the United States claims, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Thursday.
“Russia supplied arms only to the legitimate government of Afghanistan, which is well known,” the Russian diplomat stressed.
“In this context, it would be appropriate to recall the information that actively circulated in Afghanistan about the U.S. special services’ support for militants of the ISIL [the former name of the Islamic State terrorist organization outlawed in Russia] by those very helicopters without identification signs, about which we spoke at briefings some 18-24 months ago,” Zakharova said.
US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo never raised this issue at meetings with Russian colleagues, the spokeswoman pointed out.
Pompeo stated at a press briefing on Wednesday that Russia was acting contrary to the U.S. interests in Afghanistan and had allegedly been supplying small arms to that country for already ten years, which threatened the US military personnel.
The U.S. top diplomat also claimed he had numerously raised this issue during his contacts with the Russian side.
On February 14, 2003, the Russian Supreme Court declared the Taliban a terrorist organization. The extremist organization’s activities are outlawed in Russia.
