DUSHANBE, December 18. /TASS/. The Taliban movement (banned in Russia), which controls Afghanistan, has not yet ensured the security of the landlocked nation’s neighboring countries, and Afghanistan-based extremist groups have repeatedly attempted to infiltrate Tajikistan over the past year, Russian Ambassador to Dushanbe Semyon Grigoryev told TASS.
"We do not see any particular progress in the Taliban's fulfillment of its promises regarding the security of the states bordering Afghanistan. Throughout the year, extremists have attempted to infiltrate into Tajik territory through the Tajik-Afghan border. Fortunately, all of these attempts were promptly suppressed by the Tajik security forces," he said.
The diplomat pointed out that Afghanistan's socio-economic sphere "continues to degenerate." "The country is literally on the verge of a serious humanitarian crisis, aggravated by the West's intransigent refusal to unfreeze Afghan assets," he said.
Grigoryev stressed that the close attention paid by the leaders of Russia and Tajikistan to the Afghan problem is fully justified and requires constant monitoring. He pointed to a serious increase in the smuggling of synthetic drugs from Afghanistan, while "Western countries have practically cut funding for programs to combat Afghan drugs flowing across the Tajik-Afghan border."
"Another destabilizing factor in Afghanistan is the massive influx of Afghan refugees displaced by Pakistan into the northern provinces. In addition to the fact that this is already changing the ethnic composition of the local population, with inevitable conflicts on this ground, terrorists may well be among the migrants," the ambassador added. Russia will do everything it can to prevent the encroachment on its allies, one of which is Tajikistan, he said.