Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told Sputnik this morning that Russia had offered NATO its cooperation on evacuation of foreigners and others wishing to leave Afghanistan via the CSTO but that the alliance had shown no interest. “We suggested to NATO members creating an algorithm for interaction in rescue, assistance, evacuation in crisis situations. There was no interest, just as in proposals to establish dialogue and interaction between NATO and the Collective Security Treaty Organization on Afghan affairs,” Grushko said.
The developments in Afghanistan amid the withdrawal of U.S. and NATO troops are a natural result, Grushko added. “A natural result. Yugoslavia, Libya, now Afghanistan. Could expectations have been different? … A trillion spent in vain,” he said.
In Kabul, the Russians continue to function without getting caught up in the panic. “The Russian Embassy in Kabul continues to function as usual. The working contacts with the representatives of the new authorities have been established in order to ensure security of the Russian foreign institution,” the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a statement yesterday, reported TASS. As the Foreign Ministry reported, the Russian side is carefully monitoring the situation unfolding in Afghanistan after the Taliban’s rise to power “following a practically complete absence of resistance on the part of the national armed forces trained by the U.S. and its allies.”
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova stressed that Moscow is maintaining contacts with all parties in Afghanistan. “We are doing this because, among other things, there is a United Nations Security Council resolution of 2020 which calls on countries to maintain contacts with all the parties,” she said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 television channel.
