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Russia does not support any candidate in Afghan presidential election — foreign ministry

The Russian diplomatic agency ripped the reports of its doing so as "being guided by rumors and theories"
The Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry Sergei Fadeichev/TASS
The Russian Foreign Affairs Ministry
© Sergei Fadeichev/TASS

MOSCOW, August 15. /TASS/. The Afghan presidential election is an internal affair of the country’s citizens, Russia does not support any particular candidate, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated in a commentary published on Thursday.

The ministry mentioned the recent reports on Russia’s alleged support of former national security adviser Hanif Atmar in the presidential election set for September 28. The reports claimed that Russia had allocated about $60 mln for the election campaign.

"We state with full responsibility that the Russian side has not been backing any particular candidate in the upcoming presidential election in Afghanistan. We consider this election a strictly internal affair of the Afghan people. At the same time, we monitor the situation in the country and expect that the current political process will lead to the establishment of stable peace and national accord," the Russian diplomats noted.

The ministry pointed out that those reporting on Russia’s support of the Afghan presidential candidate "do not trouble themselves with presenting proof of [the report’s] credibility, instead being guided by rumors and theories." "And they write about it openly. The position of such authors is surprising, while their motives are confusing, because this does not correspond to reality. We consider these publications as an attempt to sow discord between certain political forces of the Afghan society and our country," the Russian Foreign Ministry stressed.