The Supreme Court lifted the ban from the activities of the Taliban movement in Russia
The Supreme Court of Russia excluded the Afghan Taliban Afghan movement from the list of terrorist organizations. The consideration of this case at the request of the Prosecutor General was held closed on Thursday, April 17. The Taliban actively contacted Moscow through diplomatic channels long before their re -coming to power in Afghanistan in 2021, however, Russia’s readiness to officially recognize their status as political power, and then the legal authorities in Afghanistan, largely rested against the effectiveness of their struggle with the centers of international terrorism in Afghan territory. But in recent years, Taliban has managed to achieve serious successes in this direction.
The Supreme Court lifted the ban from the activities of the Taliban movement in Russia 22 years after its adoption. The decision, which was approved on April 17 following the results of a closed meeting, entered into force immediately. As the lawyer Alexander Molokhov, representing the interests of the Afghan movement, said in an interview with Kommersant, a step from the Supreme Court « will certainly help strengthen good neighborly relations between Russia and Afghanistan. » According to him, all the necessary conditions have now developed to remove the ban from Taliban.
Prosecutor General of Russia I directed it The Supreme Court has a statement of claim on the need to suspend the ban on the activities of Taliban on March 31, 2025. The Ministry of Justice of Russia previously joined this call.
The legislative framework for revising the status of the Taliban was provided Amendments In the Russian law “On Countering Terrorism” adopted at the end of the last year. According to these changes, the ban on activities, including a foreign organization located in the Russian terrorist lists, may be suspended by the court’s decision “if there is actual data that such an organization after included in the specified list has stopped carrying out activities aimed at promoting, justification and support of terrorism or committing crimes”.
Despite their status, the officials of the Taliban repeatedly contacted Russia through diplomatic channels.
The first time their delegation I visited In Moscow on November 9, 2018, in order to participate in the consultations of the “Moscow format” – the Russian formula of the Mezhafgan settlement. After the Taliban movement came to power in 2021 and seized Kabul, his emissaries often received invitations to the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum, as well as to the Russia -Islamic World forum: KazanForum.
“I can’t say that the Taliban has become our friends number one, but definitely they are not enemies,” declared On May 15, 2024, the director of the Second Department of Asia of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Zamir Kabulov. “The Taliban openly say that they are trusting in Russia as a successor to the USSR.” According to him, many members of the Taliban movement, of course, are former Mujahideen, « who fought against the Soviet army. » “And after having fought after that with other foreign troops, they independently came to the conclusion that the USSR not only fought in Afghanistan, but also built,” the Russian diplomat summed up then.
On the issue of Moscow’s readiness to recognize the Taliban, a lot depended not only on the vicissitudes of the domestic policy of Afghanistan, but also on whether the Afghan movement was ready to cooperate with the Russian Federation in the fight against terrorism.
The main reason for the concern of the Russian leadership was the activities of the Afghan branch of the Islamic State (recognized in Russia by terrorist and prohibited) – “Vilayata Khorasan” (VX, recognized in Russia by terrorist and prohibited), which took responsibility for the Crocus City Hall on March 22, 2024.
After active counter -terrorism operations by the Taliban in 2023–2024, the GIRSER of VX (recognized in Russia by terrorist and prohibited) left the limits of Afghanistan, fixed In their report last year, the UN group for analytical support and observation of sanctions. However, the members of the VX (recognized in Russia by terrorist and prohibited) learned to adapt. Representatives of the group “successfully entered the main ministries” of the actual authority of Afghanistan, recorded the Oon experts.
According to Kommersant, senior researcher at the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, director of the Center for the Study of Modern Afghanistan Omar Nessar, the relationship between Moscow and the Taliban administration was often built on limited cooperation in various fields – primarily in the field of counteracting terrorist threats. “If this step (exclusion of the Taliban from black lists. « Kommersant ») For Moscow, it is largely symbolic, then for the Taliban it is an extremely important and significant initiative, ”the interlocutor“ Kommersant ”emphasized. The Taliban movement, according to him, primarily achieves political recognition and exit from international isolation.
