Russia denies supplying Taliban after NATO claim

Russia on March 24 denied allegations by the commander of NATO that Moscow may be assisting the Taliban as the insurgents fight U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan.

"These claims are absolutely false," Zamir Kabulov, head of the Russian Foreign Ministry's department responsible for Afghanistan and the Kremlin's special envoy in the country, told RIA Novosti state news agency, according to AFP.

"These fabrications are designed, as we have repeatedly underlined, to justify the failure of the U.S. military and politicians in the Afghan campaign. There is no other explanation." 

NATO's Supreme Allied Commander, U.S. General Curtis Scaparrotti, who also heads the U.S. military's European Command, told lawmakers in Washington on March 23 that he had witnessed Russia's influence grow in many regions, including in Afghanistan.  

"I have seen the influence of Russia of late - an increased influence - in terms of association and perhaps even supply to the Taliban," Scaparrotti told the Senate Armed Services Committee, without elaborating.

In February General John Nicholson, the U.S. commander of NATO forces in Afghanistan, testified that Russia is encouraging the Taliban and providing them with diplomatic cover in a bid to undermine U.S. influence and defeat NATO.

Kabulov in 2015 said that Russia was exchanging information with the Taliban and saw shared interest with them when it comes to fighting the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).
 
Russia considers the Taliban a terrorist group and it is banned in the country, along with ISIL.

Taliban fighters on March 23 captured Afghanistan's strategic district of Sangin, where U.S. and British forces suffered heavy casualties until it was handed over to...