If Russia recognizes the Taliban, then expect the Talibanization of the former USSR.
Author: Ahmad Saidi, an analyst on Afghanistan and regional issues (Germany), especially for “Sangar”
Russia is preparing to recognize the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
This is exactly how we should evaluate the Russian Foreign Ministry’s statement about preparations to remove the Taliban from the list of prohibited terrorist organizations in Russia.
I am often accused of excessive criticism of the Russian Foreign Ministry's policy in Afghanistan. And apparently, now some of my subscribers are waiting for another angry rant about plans for Smolenskaya Square, but I will disappoint them.
I believe that the implementation of this brilliant idea does not require the intervention of the Russian Foreign Ministry. Let the Taliban movement be excluded from the list of prohibited terrorist organizations and then the Taliban regime itself will be recognized in Afghanistan. It will be wonderful.
Because the only way to achieve anything in Russia is to bring the situation to the point of absurdity.
The legalization of the Taliban movement in the Russian Federation will open up brilliant prospects for the creation of the “Russian Taliban” - a new party or movement of Russian radical Muslims seeking to imitate the Afghan Taliban. And there are not many of them.
After the legalization of the Taliban in the Russian Federation, a similar process will begin in the Central Asian republics, where the number of Islamic radicals is even greater than in the Russian Federation.
The penetration and legitimization of the Taliban project in the post-Soviet space will inevitably put pressure on the ruling elites and force them to change, leave their comfort zone, and look for new creative political solutions to govern their countries.
Because the new project of political Islam is breathing down their necks.
Finally, I also see a positive result of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s initiative in its obvious inconsistency with political trends in Afghanistan itself.
Anyone aware of the trends developing there, which are not yet obvious to many, quite reasonably expects a deterioration of the political situation in the foreseeable future, with very unpredictable consequences. Until we begin to unravel some of the nuances of the growing political crisis, let there be a surprise.
Let's just say that Moscow's recognition of the Taliban regime may coincide with its most severe test.
I wrote, and the future will judge.
