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19-04-2025
MOSCOW: Russia’s Supreme Court has suspended its ban on the Taliban, which it had designated for more than 20 years as “a terrorist organization”. The latest move is aimed at normalizing ties with the de facto rulers of Afghanistan.
Thursday’s ruling prompted by a request from the prosecutor general is effective immediately, Judge Oleg Nefedov announced, according to Russia’s Tass news agency.
The move in favor of the group that seized power in Afghanistan in 2021 follows years of gradual rapprochement with Moscow, despite a turbulent history dating back to the Afghan Civil War of the 1990s.
More recently, shared security interests including the fight against ISIL (ISIS)’s regional affiliate, ISKP have drawn Russia and the Taliban closer.
Last year, President Vladimir Putin described the Taliban as an “ally” in counterterrorism efforts, while his envoy to Kabul announced plans to delist the group.
Moscow, which has hosted Taliban officials for several forums in recent years, is also looking to use Afghanistan as a transit hub for gas exports to Southeast Asia.
“Moscow will continue its course on developing political, trade and economic ties with Kabul,” Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in October last year.
Other Asian countries have also improved ties with the Taliban in recent years, though no state has moved to fully recognize it.
In 2023, Kazakhstan took the group, which has banned girls’ education and restricted women’s movement, off its list of “terrorist organizations”. Kyrgyzstan followed suit last year.
China, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Iran are among nations with embassies in Kabul, with Beijing becoming the first in 2023 to appoint an ambassador after the Taliban’s takeover.
In 2023, the Afghan Taliban is marking the second anniversary of its return to power with a public holiday, celebrating the takeover of Kabul and the establishment of what it described as security across the country under an “Islamic system”.
“On the second anniversary of the conquest of Kabul, we would like to congratulate the mujahid (holy warrior) nation of Afghanistan and ask them to thank Almighty Allah for this great victory,” the spokesman for the Taliban, Zabihullah Mujahid, said in a statement on Tuesday.
“Now that overall security is ensured in the country, the entire territory of the country is managed under a single leadership, an Islamic system is in place and everything is explained from the angle of Sharia (Islamic law),” Mujahid said.
Security was tight in the capital, Kabul, on Tuesday as soldiers stepped up checks.
Convoys of Taliban members gathered at Massoud Square near the abandoned US embassy building. Some of the men carried their weapons, while others snapped selfies as anthems blared and boys sold the movement’s white flag inscribed with the Islamic declaration of faith.
In Herat in the west, a crowd of Taliban supporters chanted: “Death to the Europeans, death to the Westerners, long live the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, death to the Americans.”
A military parade was cancelled in Kandahar, the cradle of the Taliban movement, from where its reclusive supreme leader, Hibatullah Akhunzada, rules by decree. Akhunzada called off the parade himself so as not to disturb the public, provincial officials told journalists. (Int’l Monitoring Desk)
