Dismissing reports from the New York Times that the Kremlin paid Afghanistan’s Taliban militants to attack U.S. troops, Red Army spokeswoman Maria Zakharova rejected Secretary of State Mike Pompeo’s claim that Russia delivered weapons to the Taliban. Last week’s New York Times report said that 74-year-old President Donald Trump was briefed Feb. 27 that Russia supplied cash to Taliban fighters to attack U.S. troops. No one other than the Democratic National Committee [DNC], House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and former Vice President and Democrat presumptive nominee Joe Biden validates the Times’ story, with intel officials divided on the actual intelligence. Yet what the New York Times reported with unnamed sources said Trump was briefed but ignored the warnings. Trump and 56-year-old Defense Secretary Mark Esper disputed the Times’ story as fake news.
Given the history of the U.S. involvement in Afghanistan, it’s certainly possible that the Kremlin would like some payback for the U.S. sabotage of the Soviet-backed Afghan government fighting a bloody civil war Dec. 24, 1979 to Feb. 15, 1989 where some 14.453 Soviets and 57,000 mujahedeen [Afghan fighters] were killed. Among the fighters paid millions by the CIA was Osama bin Laden, the mastermind of the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. Former president Jimmy Carter and the late President Ronald Reagan insisted the U.S. was neutral in the Soviet-Afghan War. But with the Cold War dominating U.S. politics since the end of WW II Sept. 2, 1945, the U.S. and Soviet Union competed for world supremacy. President Harry Truman fashioned his own doctrine, The Truman Doctrine, placing U.S. military and intelligence assets in service of stopping the Soviet advance.
So, the idea that the Kremlin would pay Taliban fighters or supply weapons to attack U.S. troops in Afghnistan is entirely plausible. “Russia has only supplied weapons to the legitimate government of Afghanistan, which is well known,” said Zakharova, rejecting Pompeo’s claims. “The Russians have been selling small arms that have put Americans at risk there for 10 years,” Pompeo said, disputing Zakharova’s denials. Russia sells arms, both large and small, to all sorts of groups, as long as their checks don’t bounce. U.S. troops know when they’re stationed in hostile theaters, with multiple enemy combatants on the battlefield, that any group could use weapons sold by Russia, China or the United States. Chinese-made Kalashnikov rifles are some of the most inexpensive, effective weapons on any battlefield, more in demand than U.S.-made Smith &Wesson M4 or M16 assault rifles.
Russia and China are major arms brokers competing all over the world for the international arms trade. It should be no surprise to anyone to find Chinese or Russian-made arms on any battlefield around the globe. “When I meet with my Russian counterparts, I talk with them about this each time: Stop this,” Pompeo said. But with the reality of global arms sales, finding Kalashnikov, Chinese or Russia-made, AK-47 or AR-15 assault rifles go with the mercenary battlefield. Russian backed the Feb. 29 peace deal with the Taliban, ending hostilities that lasted since Oct. 7, 2002 Operation Enduring Freedom, toppled the Taliban’s Kabul regime Nov. 12, 2011. Former President George W. Bush chased Al-Qaeda’s Osama bin Laden and former Taliban Chief Mullah Mohmmed Omar until his death April 23, 2013. Bin Laden was killed Abbottabad, Pakistan May 2, 2011.
Zakharova disputed any notion that Russian paid Taliban mercenaries to attack U.S. troops, something the Kremlin categorically denies. Zamir Kabulov, as top Russian diplomat for Russian President Vlaidimr Putin, said the Russian bounty theory was Election Year politics in the U.S., raising more doubts about the New York Times story. Kabulov thinks “forces that don’t want to leave Afghanistan and are willing to justify their failure,” reject claims that Russia paid any bounties to Taliban militants. Reports that the U.S. military found troves of cash at remote Taliban outposts fueled speculation that Russia was paying off Taliban fighters to harm U.S. troops. When the New York Times cites unnamed sources, then turns around and cites former National Security Advisors John Bolton, you know they’re desperate. Using Bolton undermines the New York Times’ credibility.
Russian denials about supplying arms-and-cash to Taliban militants ring hollow because the Kremlin’s arms’ sales department never rests. No U.S. military commander in the Afghan theater or elsewhere thinks that Russia is not out to harm U.S. interests. When the CIA paid Osama bin Laden millions to fight the Afghan Soviet-backed government in the 1980s, it should come as no surprise that Russia would return the favor to the U.S. U.S. Operation Enduring Freedom ousted the Taliban from Kabul Nov. 12, 2011, installing a variety of U.S.-backed regimes. Russian forces would love to get back at the U.S. for undermining the Afghan-Soviet-backed government, leading to the collapse of the Soviet Union Dec. 26, 1991. Whether Trump was briefed or not, it should come as no surprise to anyone that Russia supplied arms-and-cash to Taliban militants fighting Afghan’s U.S.-backed government.
