MOSCOW, August 20. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday after talks with visiting German Chancellor Angela Merkel that Afghanistan was a priority topic for discussion.

"In view of the rampant developments in Afghanistan, we paid priority attention to this topic. The Taliban movement [outlawed in Russia] controls practically the entire territory of the country, including the capital city. This is a reality and we must reckon with it and not let the Afghan state collapse," he said.

He stressed that it is counterproductive to imposed untypical forms of state administration and public life on Afghanistan. "It is time to drop the irresponsible policy of imposing alien values, of imposing a democracy under alien standards, not reckoning with either historical, or ethnic, or religious specifics, completely ignoring traditions of other nations. We know Afghanistan, we know it only too well. We know what this country is and how counterproductive it is to try to impose untypical forms of state administration and public life on it," the Russian president said.

According to the Russian leader, such socio-political experiments have never been successful but only lead to the collapse of states. "We see that the Taliban have declared the end of hostilities and begun introducing public order. They have promised to guarantee security of local residents, foreign diplomatic missions. I hope it will be realized. This process should be closely monitored by the international community with the United Nations Security Council’s coordinating role," Putin stressed, adding that the most important task of today is to prevent "infiltration of terrorists of all kinds into Afghanistan’s neighboring states, including disguised as refugees."

After the United States announced the end of an armed operation in Afghanistan and began to withdraw its troops, the Taliban launched a large-scale offensive on the government army and by August 15 entered Kabul after meeting no resistance. Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he was resigning to avoid bloodshed and fled the country. Western nations are evacuating their citizens and embassy employees.