MOSCOW, July 5. /TASS/. Some members of the US intelligence, which accuses Russia of conspiring with Taliban members, are involved in drug trafficking from Afghanistan, said Russian president’s special envoy for Afghanistan affairs, Zamir Kabulov.

"Those wonderful US intelligence officers, who accuse us of different things, are involved in drug trafficking. Their planes from Kandahar, from Bagram [airfield near Kabul] are flying wherever they want to - to Germany, to Romania - without any inspections," he said. "Every citizen of Kabul will tell you that, everyone is ready to talk about that."

On June 26, The New York Times ran a story claiming that an unidentified unit of the Russian military intelligence allegedly offered bounties to Taliban (outlawed in Russia) militants to kill US soldiers and other coalition troops in Afghanistan. On June 29, Dmitry Peskov, the Kremlin spokesman, castigated these reports as fabrications and an "elaborate hoax." On June 27, the Russian Foreign Ministry labeled the initial publication on this issue as intentionally false.

US President Donald Trump said in a Twitter post on June 28 that US intelligence did not find this information credible.

On February 14, 2003, the Russian Supreme Court declared the Taliban a terrorist organization. The extremist organization’s activities are outlawed in Russia.