NOVO-OGAREVO, September 17. /TASS/. Afghanistan has ended up in a state of complete economic and social devastation over the 20 years of the Western coalition's presence, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday at a joint meeting of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

"The weapons are perhaps the only thing that the Taliban received after the West’s twenty-year military presence in Afghanistan. In fact, there is nothing good about this. Otherwise, the country found itself in a state of complete economic and social devastation," Putin noted.

The Afghan situation

On September 7, the Taliban (banned in Russia), which seized power in Afghanistan, announced the new interim government. Mohammad Hasan was declared as a Prime Minister, while Abdul Ghani Baradar and Abdul Salam Hanafi became his deputies.

The Taliban embarked on a large-scale operation to take control of Afghanistan after the US had announced its intention to withdraw its forces in the spring. On August 15, Taliban fighters swept into Kabul without encountering any resistance, with Afghanistan’s then President Ashraf Ghani subsequently fleeing the country.

For almost two weeks, the radicals could not approve the new Cabinet, mainly, due to "technical difficulties and preparations".