The Ministry of Interior (MoI) on Wednesday said it had no evidence that Russian military officers met with Taliban representatives in Uruzgan province recently.
The statement comes a day after Uruzgan police chief Ghulam Farooq Sangari claimed that eleven Russian military officers, including two generals and two female doctors, met Taliban officials in Uruzgan.
In response to the claims, the ministry of interior has said it has no knowledge of such a meeting in the province.
“We once again call on the Uruzgan police chief to provide us with further explanations and give us more information, but the ministry of interior has no information about the presence of Russian military in Afghanistan,” said MoI spokesman Najib Danish.
But Uruzgan police chief said in a telephonic interview with TOLOnews earlier this week there were intelligence reports which indicated that the Russian military delegation had met with the Taliban near Trinkot city, the center of Uruzgan province.
“They (Russian officers) met the Taliban to train them in tactical maneuvers, and planting of mines, this is the information which has been traced by our intelligence organs in Uruzgan,” said Sangari.
Rumors over the engagement of Taliban and Russian officials have been ongoing for the past few months, and there has been much speculation about alleged contact between the Russians and the Taliban.
Russian officials have on various occasions confirmed contact with the resurgent group which has been fighting the government in Kabul for the past fifteen years.
“Our military operations continue across Afghanistan. But so far we have no evidence to show that Russia provided ammunition to the Taliban,” said Mohammad Radmanish, deputy spokesman to MoD.
“Just a day before I met the minister of interior, hundreds of BM40 missiles entered the country through Nimroz border and the missiles have been delivered to the Taliban in Helmand, Kandahar, Uruzgan and some western provinces. It is believed that these weapons have been provided by the Russians through Iran,” said MP Khalid Pashton.
“It’s natural, the majority of weapons in Iran are made in Russia; they have signed contracts with the Russians in this respect; the Iranians have a lot of Russian made weapons; if sometimes these weapons are delivered to the Taliban, then we can confirm that these weapons are provided to the Taliban by the Russians,” said MP Abdul Jabbar Qahraman.
Afghan officials have continuously asked neighboring countries to avoid meddling in Afghanistan’s affairs.
This comes just days ahead of the Moscow summit on Afghanistan which is expected to be held on Friday.
The conference will be attended by representatives from eleven countries including China, Pakistan, Iran, India, five central Asian countries and Afghanistan.
On Tuesday, The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said Kabul is committed to sending a ‘clear message’ to the Taliban during the upcoming conference in Moscow.
The Taliban must realize that they cannot reach their objectives by waging war and violence, MoFA spokesman Ahmad Shekib Mustaghni said.
“Our message to the Taliban in this meeting is that they cannot achieve their goals through war and it has been proven. Another message is that terrorists should not be differentiated between,” Mustaghni stated.
Bilateral relations between Afghanistan and the Russian Federation recently soured following the confirmation by Russian officials that Moscow had been in talks with the Afghan Taliban.