In an Aug. 30 interview with Rossiya-24, Russian special envoy to Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said Moscow is ready to participate in efforts for socio-economic reconstruction of the country, and called for an international conference. “A major international conference is to be convened to decide which projects are to be handled in the first place. This is not only Russia’s priority, but a priority of many other countries,” Kabulov said. “We should not just criticize and condemn the production of narcotic drugs in Afghanistan. We must propose an alternative supported by corresponding financial and economic instruments.” (https://tass.com/politics/1331667)
Also, according to the Belgian news agency Belga, Kabulov declared Aug. 30, “All rich countries of the world should meet with representatives of the new Afghan authorities to discuss economic and social reconstruction.” Doing so is a “matter of honor and conscience.” Kabulov also clarified that, so far, there is no question of giving money to the Taliban but rather initiatives to support, for example, the afghani, Afghanistan’s national currency.
On Aug. 31, AFP/Radio France Internationale (RFI) ran an article titled “Russia Calls for Release of Afghan Central Bank’s Currency Reserves.” Most of these reserves have been frozen in the United States since the Taliban took over Kabul. “If our Western colleagues are really concerned about the fate of the Afghan people, we should not create additional problems for them,” Zamir Kabulov said on the Rossiya-24 channel. According to him, it is urgent to unfreeze these assets in order to support the value of the currency which is collapsing.
