MOSCOW, September 8. /TASS/. Monday’s terror bomb blast near the Russian embassy in Kabul was aimed at disrupting stabilization in Afghanistan and Russia’s role in this process, Russia’s foreign intelligence service SVR has said.
"According to the SVR’s sources, the terrorist attack against the Russian embassy in Kabul was aimed at disrupting further stabilization in Afghanistan and Russia’s constructive role in this process. The shifts towards normalization in Afghanistan are clearly against the interests of the United States and its allies," the SVR said on Thursday.
The foreign intelligence also believes that the prolonged presence of Western countries in Afghanistan has only led to the collapse of the economy, degradation of security and the emergence of a favorable environment for extremism.
"In the context of a global confrontation with Russia, the West is out to prevent the strengthening of our country’s positions and influence in Afghanistan," the news release says. "A logical result of the Western states’ refusal to carry out coordinated and systematic international cooperation in the fight against extremism can be seen in the growing terrorist activity in Afghanistan. Attacks by groups and individual militants have become more frequent," the SVR said. The intelligence service warned that success in the fight against terrorism would be impossible without concerted action by all countries, while "flirtation with extremists will inevitably lead to growing threats to international security and new terrorist attacks."
The Russian Foreign Ministry said on September 5 that an unidentified militant had set off an explosive device near the entrance to the consular department of the Russian embassy in Kabul, killing two embassy staffers.