As scenes of desperate chaos unfold at Kabul’s airport, some of us watching are heartbroken and angry, others dismayed and apprehensive. (“Raise your hand if you want this plane landing in your town,” Newsmax host Steve Cortes tweeted.) And then there’s a third group that can’t hide its schadenfreude. These are the Russian regime’s star propagandists, who aren’t so much celebrating the Taliban’s victory — the group is still banned as terrorist in Russia — or even the defeat of the Putin regime’s archenemy, the U.S., as they are relishing in the plight of those Afghans who are trying to flee but facing the West’s inability, and often open unwillingness, to accept them in any reasonable numbers.
Afghanistan
OP-ED
Leonid Bershidsky: The agony of Afghans left behind
(FILES) In this file photo taken on Aug. 18, 2021, a Taliban fighter walks past a beauty salon with images of women defaced using spray paint in Shar-e-Naw in Kabul.
