MOSCOW, June 4. /TASS/. Media reports saying that representatives of the Taliban movement (banned in Russia) will not take part in the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum (SPIEF) are false, Russian Special Presidential Representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov, who also serves as director of the Foreign Ministry’s Second Asian Department, said.

"I think this is pure fiction," the diplomat said. "He (the labor minister in the Taliban interim government - TASS) will be [at SPIEF], his meetings with official Russian representatives are being worked out," Kabulov noted.

Taliban representative Zabihullah Mujahid confirmed in a comment to a TASS correspondent that a Taliban delegation headed by Afghan Minister of Labor and Social Policy Alhaji Sheikh Abdulbar will take part in SPIEF.

On May 27, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the initiative to remove the Taliban from the list of terrorist organizations "reflects an awareness of reality." Earlier, Kabulov told TASS that the Russian Foreign Ministry and the Justice Ministry had reported to Russian President Vladimir Putin that the Taliban could be removed from the ban list. On May 28, Putin noted that it was necessary to build relations with the Taliban because they control Afghanistan and are the current power in the country.