Russia offers to help with flight guarantee

Russia is ready to send airplanes to evacuate Afghans and Russians who wish to leave Afghanistan, said the Foreign Ministry on Thursday.

Thousands of Afghan citizens have rushed to flee the country this week following the Taliban's swift takeover of Kabul, resulting in chaos at Kabul's airport that has led to the deaths of at least 12 people.

Maria Zakharova, the Russian ministry's spokeswoman, said in a news conference that although some Western countries had arranged for the evacuation of their diplomats, military and civilians, they did little to help those Afghans who had cooperated with them and their families.

"In order to prevent the worsening of the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan, we are ready to provide the services of the Russian civil aviation to ensure the flight of any number of Afghan nationals, including women and children, to whatever foreign countries that will show an interest in receiving and accommodating them," she said.

She added that the Taliban leadership has guaranteed that it would not interfere with these flights.

However, Zakharova stressed that evacuations of Russian embassy personnel or its citizens are currently not being discussed.

Though Russia remains reluctant to fully acknowledge the legitimacy of Taliban rule, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov noted this week that the group has sent a "positive signal" with its initial assurances and that the fighters are behaving in a "civilized manner".

Zakharova said there are no grounds to believe that trade and economic relations between Russia and Afghanistan cannot develop under the Taliban authority.

"It is premature to comment on that so far," said Zakharova, responding to a question about prospects for bilateral trade and economic ties.

"At the same time, we have no grounds to believe that they will not have an impetus for further development after tuning up the functioning system of government agencies and restoring the peace in Afghanistan's society."

No interference

Vladimir Dzhabarov, the first deputy chairman of the Russian Federation Council's Foreign Affairs Committee, said the decision on Afghanistan's system of government should be made by Afghan people themselves without external interference.

Waheedullah Hashimi, a high-ranking representative of the Taliban, said in an interview with Reuters that Afghanistan will not be a Western-styled democratic state after the takeover. Dzhabarov said the most important thing is to ensure that no one interferes.

"If they are satisfied with such a system of government as the Islamic Emirate, we will probably have to prepare for relations with that emirate," he said.

According to the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, focusing on the situation in Afghanistan.

Putin and Draghi agreed on the need to continue combating the spread of terrorist ideas and the threat of drug trafficking coming from Afghanistan, and also called for the consolidation of international efforts to help establish peace and stability in Afghanistan, according to a statement by the Kremlin press service.