Moscow Slams US, EU for Branding Russia A Threat over Its Role in Afghanistan

The simplest method for western countries is to go back to basics and once again declare Russia a threat, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko told Sputnik, when speaking about the American and European reaction to the recent events in Afghanistan and their fears about the role of Moscow in further developments.

"It is much easier to get back to basics and declare Russia a threat. They tried their best, you know the rest."

'We need to turn the page over, however, China causes concerns', that's the whole story," Grushko said.

"The war has become unpopular" for the European and the US agenda, the Russian diplomat noted.

"Coffins are coming. A trillion (dollars) was just wasted," Grushko said.

On 16 August, leading members of the European Parliament called on the EU to develop a new strategy for Afghanistan, alleging that Russia and China could "fill the political vacuum". US President Joe Biden, for his part, noted that Beijing and Moscow would prefer to see the United States indefinitely continue to funnel billions of dollars and resources into the stabilization of Afghanistan.

Notably, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has discussed the situation in Afghanistan with both US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and his Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, according to the Foreign Ministry.

The Taliban seized Kabul without a fight on 15 August, prompting President Ashraf Ghani to resign and leave the country. Ghani later declared his decision was dictated by the desire to prevent violence as the militants were ready to carry out an attack on the capital. A spokesman for the Taliban's political office, Mohammad Naeem, later said that the twenty-year war had come to end.