*NEW YORK:* Russia is supplying arms to the Taliban, the head of US forcesin Afghanistan has told the *BBClink>*.link>
In an exclusive interview, Gen John Nicholson said he’d seen “destabilisingactivity by the Russians”.
He said Russian weapons were smuggled across the Tajik border to theTaliban, but could not say in what quantity. Russia has denied such USallegations in the past, citing a lack of evidence.
But the new claims come at a sensitive time in Russia’s ties with NATOpowers.
Britain and Russia are locked in a dispute over claims that Russia wasbehind an attack on a former Russian spy and his daughter on UK soil usinga deadly nerve agent.
Meanwhile, a US Congressional Intelligence Committee has just published areport concluding that Russian provocateurs meddled in the 2016 election.
“We see a narrative that’s being used that grossly exaggerates the numberof ISIS [Islamic State group] fighters here,” Gen Nicholson told *BBC News*.“This narrative then is used as a justification for the Russians tolegitimise the actions of Taliban and provide some degree of support to theTaliban.”
“We’ve had stories written by the Taliban that have appeared in the mediaabout financial support provided by the enemy. We’ve had weapons brought tothis headquarters and given to us by Afghan leaders and said, this wasgiven by the Russians to the Taliban,” he continued. “We know that theRussians are involved.”
Much of Gen Nicholson’s career has been spent in the conflict inAfghanistan. He narrowly escaped death when his office in the Pentagon wasdestroyed by one of the 9/11 planes and the US campaign in Afghanistan hasshaped his career ever since.
He believes this direct Russian involvement with the Taliban is relativelynew. He says Russia has conducted a series of exercises on the Afghanborder with Tajikistan. “These are counter-terrorism exercises,” says GenNicholson, “but we’ve seen the Russian patterns before: they bring in largeamounts of equipment and then they leave some of it behind.”
The implication is that these weapons and other equipment are then smuggledacross the border and supplied to the Taliban.
The general admits it is hard to quantify how much support Russia isactually giving the Taliban, but senior Afghan police officers and militaryfigures have told the *BBC* that it includes night vision goggles, mediumand heavy machine guns as well as small arms.
Afghan sources say these weapons are likely to have been used againstAfghan forces and the NATO advisers who support them on some combatmissions.
However, Russia is not an obvious ally of the Taliban. The Soviet Unionfought a bitter war against the US-backed mujahedin after it invadedAfghanistan in 1979. Many of those same mujahedin fighters joined theTaliban when it was formed during the civil war that followed thehumiliating Russian withdrawal in 1989.
The Taliban’s enmity towards Russia was enduring, says Kate Clarke of theAfghan Analysts Network: “The Taliban always castigated the NorthernAlliance for dealing with Russia,” she says.
It may be that now Russian and Taliban interests are becoming more closelyaligned, she speculates.