A close examination of the Russian government’s public positions on the impending Taliban takeover of Afghanistan provides a revealing picture of Moscow’s approach to conflicts abroad and of its posture in Central Asia more specifically. While reveling in Washington’s failure in Afghanistan and criticizing the United States for the latter’s badly planned withdrawal from there, Russia has also broached the idea of allowing US forces access to Russian bases in Central Asia – before denying it had done so. At the same time, Moscow has brought pressure to bear upon Central Asian governments to refrain from hosting those US forces in their own countries. That bravado and gloating, nonetheless, obscures deeper worries in Russia regarding the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.
OP-ED
Stephen Blank: The Kremlin’s bluff in Afghanistan
A bird sits on a tree next to a monument to Soviet soldiers killed in action in Afghanistan during Soviet invasion of 1979-1989 at Moscow's Poklonnaya Hill War Memorial Park on April 2, 2021.
