Russia concerned that external players trying to activate meddling in Afghanistan — Lavrov

KAZAN (TASS): Moscow is alarmed by attempts by non-regional players to intensify their activities in and around Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in a written address to the participants in the Moscow format consultations on Afghanistan now taking place in Kazan.

“We are concerned about the attempts of extra-regional players to become more active in the Afghan direction,” the top Russian diplomat said in his message, which was read out at the meeting by Russian Special Presidential Representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov, who also serves as director of the Foreign Ministry’s Second Asian Department.

The full-fledged unification of efforts by the countries of the region with the member states of the NATO bloc, according to Lavrov, “is possible only if the latter fully acknowledge their full responsibility for the baleful results of their 20-year military presence in Afghanistan, which ended in a complete fiasco.”

“The Western countries, which inflicted irreparable damage on the Afghan people, must bear the main burden of the country’s post-conflict reconstruction,” the top Russian diplomat stressed. “In this regard, Washington’s freezing of Afghan bank assets is counterproductive and only escalates the situation and complicates the already difficult living conditions of ordinary Afghans,” Lavrov concluded.