MINSK. Nov 28 (Interfax) – Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN) Director Viktor Ivanov says that NATO has failed to contribute to the fight against Afghan illegal drug business. “We can say that the hopes the world pinned on NATO in the suppression of Afghan drugs were crushed,” Ivanov said at a meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Coordination […]
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MOSCOW, November 20 (RIA Novosti) A senior Russian diplomat has voiced concerns over US plans to retain nine military bases in Afghanistan after their planned withdrawal from the country. Russia’s presidential envoy to Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, told RIA Novosti in an interview Wednesday that the bases would “exert a serious influence on the whole vast Asian region and become […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Andrei Ilyashenko, political analyst for Voice of Russia Radio, special to RBTH – November 5, 2013) With international forces leaving and an upcoming election looming in 2014, Afghanistan is looking at a very unstable future. On January 1, 2015, Afghanistan will say goodbye to the occupational armies of the United States and NATO, […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 15, 2013) A year after Russia opened a transit hub in Ulyanovsk to help in NATO’s pullout from Afghanistan, not a single alliance member has used it, a Russian newspaper said Thursday. “Russian authorities insisted, when opening the hub, that only Russian transport companies service its operations. And they hiked the prices so much that […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, August 14, 2013) The intended pullout of the NATO-led forces from Afghanistan starting in 2014 is “too hasty,” Russia’s Deputy Defense Minister said Wednesday adding that Russia will reinforce its military bases in Central Asia ahead of the withdrawal. The International Security Assistance Force (ISAF), which has been fighting the radical Islamist Taliban movement in […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW, July 11, 2013) The director of the Russian Federal Drug Control Service (FSKN), Viktor Ivanov, has confirmed an upsurge in smuggling Afghan heroin to Russia. “We see a larger flow of Afghan drugs to Russian territory. (Drug hauls) intercepted by our services in the first half of the year increased 1.5-2 times as compared with the same […]
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(Interfax – BISHKEK, July 9, 2013) Kyrgyz Prime Minister Zhantoro Satybaldiyev has denied rumors claiming that the presence of the U.S. Transit Center at Manas International Airport near Bishkek could be prolonged. “These are just rumors. The government submitted a bill renouncing the agreement with the U.S. on the deployment of the Transit Center at Manas Airport to parliament. Parliament […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, June 3, 2013) Russia-US relations could be improved through collaboration in Afghanistan, despite having suffered a difficult phase recently, a senior Russian MP and foreign affairs spokesman said on Monday. Mikhail Margelov, head of the international affairs committee at the Federation Council, the upper house of the Russian parliament, made his comments after a meeting with […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Ivan Nechepurenko – May 29, 2013) Ahead of NATO’s planned withdrawal from Afghanistan next year, leaders of the Russia-led Collective Security Treaty Organization have pledged to pool their resources to counter any potential deterioration of the security situation in the region. In an effort to demonstrate the importance of the military alliance, President Vladimir Putin […]
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(Interfax – May 24, 2013) Russia needs “clear and reliable” guarantees that US missile defences will not be aimed against it and will take “military-technical” measures in response to their deployment, Secretary of the Russian Security Council Nikolay Patrushev has told Interfax news agency. “They will be taken as required, as the USA progresses in the creation of its missile […]
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(RIA Novosti – MOSCOW, May 23, 2013) Russia’s military intelligence agency, the GRU, expects the Taliban influence in Afghanistan to grow after international coalition forces are pulled out, while rising radicalism in Syria could lead to the country’s disintegration, the GRU chief said on Thursday. Lt. Gen. Igor Sergun said the situation in Afghanistan poses a “serious challenge to […]
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(Interfax – May 17, 2013) Russia and NATO are boosting their cooperation in a number of areas, however Russia still has concerns about US and NATO European missile defence plans, Russian Deputy Chief of General Staff Col-Gen Aleksandr Postnikov-Streltsov has said. Interfax news agency carried the comments that Postnikov-Streltsov made after a meeting of the Russia-NATO Council (RNC) in Brussels […]
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Subject: Jackson Diehl on Extremists From: John Evans <evansinusa@aol.com> Date: Thu, 2 May 2013 Jackson Diehl’s attempt to conflate the Chechen rebels with the Syrian rebels (“Extremists of Putin’s Own Making,” Washington Post op-ed, April 29, JRL #80) and then blame it all on the Russian President risks misleading readers into imagining that Russia, not Islamist extremism, is our current […]
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(Interfax – April 25, 2013) The Russian Union of Afghan War Veterans that unites many generals and officers who took part in the pullout of the Soviet limited contingent from Afghanistan are ready to respond to requests from NATO colleagues and share their materials, Union leader Frants Klintsevich told Interfax-AVN on Thursday. “I have learned about the NATO request from […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines/Interfax – www.rbth.ru – Viktor Onuchko, Interfax – April 11, 2013) Ahead of the Russia-NATO Council meeting scheduled to take place in late April, Russia’s ambassador to Afghanistan talks about the efforts of the international community and the Afghan government to pull that country out of its 12-year war. A meeting of the Russia-NATO Council at the […]
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(Interfax – MOSCOW. April 3, 2013) Over one million people have died from Afghan heroin in the world since 2001 and the NATO operation against drug production in Afghanistan is ineffective, Russian Federal Drug Control Service Chief Viktor Ivanov said. “Since the 2000s, since the beginning of the Enduring Freedom operation in 2001, over one million people have died from […]
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(Interfax – April 1, 2013 – Brussels) – One cannot speak of the fulfillment of the mandate issued by the UN Security Council to the coalition force in Afghanistan, Russian ambassador to Afghanistan Andrei Avetisian believes. “The mandate of the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was apparent – to fight terrorism. The result of 12 years of implementation of the […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – February 21, 2013) NATO and Russia pride themselves on cooperation over Afghanistan and the fight against terrorists and pirates, but a planned logistics hub to transport military hardware from Afghanistan is not taking off. Moscow and the Western military alliance will conduct a range of exercises this year, including a joint […]
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MOSCOW, February 19 (RIA Novosti) – Russia has no plans to end US cargo traffic to Afghanistan via its territory despite differences in relations between the two states, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov said on Tuesday. “Cargo transit [to Afghanistan] via Russian territory is an important aspect of our cooperation, and we have no plans to end it,” Gatilov […]
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(Russia Beyond the Headlines – rbth.ru – Interfax – interfax.ru – February 14, 2013) After the planned withdrawal of U.S. forces and the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) from Afghanistan, this country could become a source of a terrorist threat for Russia and the countries of the region, Army Gen. Anatoly Kulikov, the president of the Club of Commanders, told […]
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(February 12, 2013 – Interfax) The terrorist activity level on the space around CIS member states is the highest in Afghanistan, CIS Anti-Terrorist Center Head Andrei Novikov said at the sixth meeting of center senior officials. “Afghanistan, a country bordering on CIS member countries, has the highest level of terrorist activity,” he said. The decision to pull out NATO forces […]
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(Ambassador Michael McFaul – Russia Beyond the Headlines – www.rbth.ru – February 8, 2013 – Michael Mcfaul is the U.S. Ambassador in Russia) A year ago, I arrived in Moscow to represent my country as the U.S. Ambassador to the Russian Federation. This is a good moment to reflect on the state of U.S.-Russian relations and my role in developing […]
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(Eurasia Daily Monitor: Volume 10, Issue 23 – Jamestown Foundation – jamestown.org – Pavel Felgenhauer – February 7, 2013) According to Russian diplomatic sources, during a meeting last weekend in Munich on the sidelines of the annual international security conference, United States Vice President Joseph Biden assured Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov that Washington wants to put bilateral relations “back […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – Dec. 17, 2012) A planned air cargo route for NATO countries’ military equipment from Afghanistan via Ulyanovsk is being tested and should be operating soon, a top general for the alliance said. General Knud Bartels, who chairs the alliance’s military committee, told reporters Friday that containers are being shipped from Afghanistan […]
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[Dialogue with the Taliban unavoidable: New approaches are needed to regulate Afghanistan post-2014 – Russia Beyond the Headlines/VPK Daily – Anatoly Kulikov – Anatoly Kulikov is an army general and chairman of the Military Chiefs Club of the Russian Federation. – Dec. 10, 2012 – http://rbth.ru/articles/2012/12/10/dialogue_with_the_taliban_unavoidable_20987.html] Russia Behind the Headlines features commentary by Gen. Anatoly Kulikov discussing the situation on […]
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(Moscow Times – themoscowtimes.com – Nikolaus von Twickel – Dec. 12, 2012) Five months after Moscow finalized an agreement with NATO to use Ulyanovsk’s airport for transporting military equipment from Afghanistan, not a single flight has been carried out. National media have speculated that money is an issue and that Volga-Dnepr, the freight company that would handle the flights from […]
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[U.S. Senate forbids Pentagon to cooperate with Rosoboronexport – ITAR-TASS – RUSSIAN PRESS REVIEW – Dec. 3, 2012 – http://www.itar-tass.com/en/c142/587557.html] Itar-Tass reports on U.S. Senate approval of sanctions against Russia for supplying weapons to Syria, in the form of a prohibition on the U.S. Department of Defence buying weapons from Russian arms exporter Rosoboronexport. Meanwhile, Russia argues that it is […]
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Paul Rogers – www.opendemocracy.net – October 4, 2012 Paul Rogers is professor in the department of peace studies at Bradford University, northern England. He is openDemocracy’s international-security editor, and has been writing a weekly column on global security since 28 September 2001; he also writes a monthly briefing for the Oxford Research Group. His books include Why We’re Losing the […]
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