Russia has accepted the credentials of a new ambassador of Afghanistan as part of an ongoing drive to build friendly relations with the country’s Taliban authorities, which seized power as United States troops withdrew from the country four years ago.
“We believe that the act of official recognition of the government of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan will give impetus to the development of productive bilateral cooperation between our countries in various fields,” said the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs in a statement on Thursday.
The move makes Russia the first country in the world to recognise the country’s Taliban government.
“This brave decision will be an example for others,” Afghan Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said in a video of a meeting on Thursday with Dmitry Zhirnov, the Russian ambassador to Kabul, posted on X.
“Now that the process of recognition has started, Russia was ahead of everyone.”
The move is likely to be closely watched by Washington, which has frozen billions in Afghanistan’s central bank assets and enforced sanctions on some senior leaders in the Taliban, which has contributed to Afghanistan’s banking sector being largely cut off from the international financial system.
The group seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, when US forces supporting the country’s internationally recognised government pulled out.
Moscow, which called the US withdrawal a “failure”, has taken steps to normalise relations with the Taliban authorities since then, seeing them as a potential economic partner and ally in fighting terrorism.
A Taliban delegation attended Russia’s flagship economic forum in Saint Petersburg in 2022 and 2024, and the group’s top diplomat met Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in Moscow last October.
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