In comments to the press on May 24, Sergey Naryshkin, the head of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Agency (SVR), said that American spies are working to destabilize Central Asia and is in the process of reestablishing their contacts with ISIS terrorists to operate against Russia.
Naryshkin noted that, despite Washington’s “humiliating” withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, British and American intelligence services still cooperate with underground terrorist cells “to destabilize the situation not only in [this country], but also in Central Asia and Eurasia as a whole.”
“Until now, these special services have been using such terrorist organizations,” he emphasized. “Syria is the most vivid, but by no means the only, example, and Afghanistan is the most affected state in this regard,” the SVR chief said. He noted the growing terrorist threat in northern Afghanistan which is aimed at Taliban control of the country.
Because of this threat, more attention is being paid by Russia, and by China, to the situation in Central Asia. Note the united position taken by the two countries at the May 20-21Shanghai Cooperation Organization foreign ministers’ summit. In addition, Soviet Premier Mikhail Mishustin visited Turkmenistan to arrange new energy deals with this natural gas-producing country. Turkmenistan has kept its distance from most of the regional organizations, like the SCO and the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO), and has been heavily courted by the West.
