Moscow: Russian Special Presidential Representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov said Moscow is working towards establishing normal relations with the Taliban and will refrain from imposing any outside values. "Our embassy is continuing to actively operate in Kabul," said Kabulov.
"We need to maintain normal relations with any Afghan government," he said, adding that while Russia is still concerned about the developing military and political situation in the region, nothing should be imposed on the Afghan people and the existing cultural and religious values must be respected, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The official said that Russia respects that the Afghan people may have their own perception of democracy, adding that the country's traditional institutions can be considered "conditionally democratic." Kabulov didn't rule out the possibility of new US airstrikes in Afghanistan and urged the West to assist in normalising the situation in the country through humanitarian aid rather than "create additional obstacles" such as freezing Afghanistan's gold and foreign exchange reserves.