Part I.
Russians of course are suspicious of this move of US gov in Afghanistan, thinking that it has been done with the purpose in mind to set Russia's Eastern borders on fire, while they are busy with their western borders ( Ukraine) as it is.
Afghanistan ( or rather radical Islam there) was a concern for the Russian ( then Soviet) government because of the possible infiltrating forces in the neighboring Stans plus Northern Caucasus.
This is the major reason why the Russians wanted to remove the Islamists from power in Afghanistan back in the 80ies.
But, as we all remember, American gov. supplied the Islamists with the Stingers, which destroyed the only real advantage that Russians had in Afghanistan - those "flying fortresses," ( don't remember the name of the special helicopters that were the only effective machinery to deal with the *invincible enemy* that was hiding in the mountainous area.)
And this of course hindered the Russian operations in Afghanistan.
As some people are telling me now - "it was a revenge for Vietnam."
Very well.
It probably "felt good" for some time, until the September 11 of course.
So keeping this in mind, let's go back to the current situation in Afghanistan yet again.
The US withdrawal from Afghanistan hits the WHOLE REGION, that whole part of the world in much bigger ways than I ever suspected ( even if the original intention was ( yet again) only to hurt Russian interests.
So India that has a simmering conflict with Pakistan as it is, is pointing now at Pakistan as the main co-conspirator to create Taliban government in Afghanistan, and truth to be told - it is.
Of course they were helping their own - Pushtu ethnic group, the "believers" that were prepared in Islamic boarding schools ( madrassas) of Pakistan.
So now India is looking for closer ties with Iran to counter-balance Pakistan.
India is losing a lot of investment money that they put into Afghanistan's infrastructure by the way, while Americans were staying there ( about $3 billion,) which doesn't make them happy about Am. troops withdrawal.
Then comes China, which is looking forward to take over Afghanistan with its mineral resources, willing ( yet again) to invest in Afghanistan's infrastructure, and to get even more financial/political clout in the region.
Provided - Taliban will forget about their Uighur Islamic brethren in China, the "reeducation camps" and so on.
Oh, and of course if (according to Taliban's envoys request in Moscow) so that that the "terrorist group" label would be removed from them in the UN.
They want to be legitimate, since they understand that without financial help and investments their country will remain in the pit.
In return, they promise that they will not host any "international terrorist organizations" such as ISIS or Al Qaeda.
It will be only their own, small and cozy "Islamic Emirate" and nothing else.
The pesky Russians somehow don't believe a word of these promises, and are starting the joint drills on the "Stans" borders, where the more moderate Islamic governments are weary of Taliban's expansion/invasion. ( Yes, their economies are dependent on Russia too.)
And speaking of Stans - I hear more and more that last Putin/Biden meeting in Switzerland was actually about Afghanistan too.
And since it took only about 45 minutes, I imagine it went something like this;
Biden: "Can we revive our old military bases in "Stans" or build the new ones in order to keep Taliban in check from there?"
Putin; "In our backyard? Not just "no," but hell no. We already saw what you are doing in Ukraine. You'll never leave those bases once you'll put them there."
Of course Trump who initiated this US troops withdrawal, initially had GOOD RELATIONS WITH RUSSIA in mind when he was sworn in, and he didn't want ANYTHING TO DO with Ukraine.
But we already know what came out of it.
The howling, the hysteria and the rest.
But as I already said before, Trump had a good intuition.
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