Russian authorities fear spillover of terrorists from Afghanistan

A senior Russian official has expressed concerns that terrorists from Afghanistan can slip into Central Asian states and Russia via the border with Kazakhstan.

Russia’s Security Council deputy secretary, Alexander Grebenkin, on Sunday said that Moscow has been monitoring on tenterhooks the situation in Afghanistan after the Taliban came to power.

He said Afghanistan situation is unlikely to improve given the political and economic crises there, and that Moscow expects a further increase in the scale of drug trafficking, arms smuggling and uncontrolled migration of refugees with members of terror groups hidden among them, Sputnik reported.

“There is a risk of infiltration into the Russian territory by members of international terrorist and extremist organizations, as well as movement of means of sabotage and terror. This is the result of the increase in the number of hotbeds of military and political instability near our borders,” he said according to Sputnik.

“Militants and terrorists from Afghanistan can infiltrate the states of the Central Asian region, and from there move into Russia through the Russian-Kazakh section of the state border,” Grebenkin added.

This issue was on the agenda of the recent annual meeting of the secretaries of the security councils of the CIS member states, according to the official.

Afghanistan is now battered by the deepening economic, humanitarian, and security crisis following the Taliban takeover. The international community, from governments to non-governmental organizations, has been providing assistance to the Afghan people ever since.

Source: Afghanistan Times