MONITORING (SW) Russian president’s special envoy for Afghanistan affairs, Zamir Kabulov, has accused US intelligence in Afghanistan of "drug trafficking".
"Those wonderful US intelligence officers, who accuse us of different things, are involved in drug trafficking. Their planes from Kandahar, from Bagram [airfield near Kabul] are flying wherever they want to – to Germany, to Romania – without any inspections," he said. "Every citizen of Kabul will tell you that, everyone is ready to talk about that."
On June 26, The New York Times ran a story claiming that an unidentified unit of the Russian military intelligence allegedly offered bounties to Taliban (outlawed in Russia) militants to kill US soldiers and other coalition troops in Afghanistan. On June 29, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, castigated these reports as fabrications and an "elaborate hoax."
On June 27, the Russian Foreign Ministry labeled the initial publication on this issue as intentionally false.
US President Donald Trump said in a Twitter post on June 28 that US intelligence did not find this information credible.
On February 14, 2003, the Russian Supreme Court declared the Taliban a terrorist organization. The extremist organization’s activities are outlawed in Russia.
US President Donald Trump has been briefed on reported Russian bounties placed on American troops in Afghanistan, the White House said Tuesday.
In a pair of tweets, Trump said Sunday neither Vice President Mike Pence nor White House Chief of Staff Mark Meadows were told "about the so-called attacks on our troops in Afghanistan by Russians, as reported through an 'anonymous source' by the Fake News @nytimes."
His denial came two days after the newspaper reported that a Russian military intelligence unit secretly offered bounties to Taliban-linked militants for killing coalition forces, including American troops in Afghanistan.
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