During his remarks to the CIS Council of Heads of State meeting, Russian President Vladimir Putin raised the issue of drug trafficking stemming from a collapsing Afghanistan, a collapse being aggravated by the refusal of the U.S. and its allies to release funds that belong to the state of Afghanistan. “Drug production in and drug smuggling out of Afghanistan are still extremely grave problems,” Putin said, according to the Kremlin transcript. “It is a serious challenge. Afghanistan remains the world’s biggest supplier of opiates accounting for 90% of the global market. Despite their promises to fight drug production, the Taliban in reality … I do not know whether they are willing or able to do that.… They did it the last time they were in power [the Taliban nearly eliminated opium in 2000-ed.], and successfully, but today it will not be easy for them to give up this source of revenue, especially given the economic crisis in Afghanistan.”
Politically, Putin said there must be no rush to give recognition to the Taliban government but there must nevertheless be discussions with them. “Unfortunately, the Taliban-established transitional government does not represent the entire range of Afghan society. At the same time, the intention to hold general elections has been announced, and measures are being taken to resume the normal functioning of government bodies,” he said. Putin also said that “we should not rush to recognize the Taliban officially. We realize it is necessary to interact with them but there must be no haste with this, either. We will discuss all this together and consult each other.
“Nevertheless, it is essential to promote intra-Afghan reconciliation and generally to strive for normalization there. All of us can facilitate the resumption of the work done by the extended Troika, that is, Russia, the United States and China with Pakistan’s participation, and I would like to ask you to support this. We can also promote the resumption of the Moscow format, in which the region’s key countries, including Central Asian states, take part. We are working to hold meetings within these mechanisms in Moscow as early as possible in October.” (http://en.kremlin.ru/events/president/news/66937)
