“It is a catastrophe. It is true. It’s not just my words. These are remarks made by American analysts,” Putin said on Friday, according to news agency Tass, about the U.S. presence in the country and its rapid withdrawal.
“It is a catastrophe because Americans, very pragmatic people, spent more than $1.5 trillion for this whole campaign and what is the result?”
“Looking at the number of people who worked for the collective West, the U.S. and their allies, and are now left behind in Afghanistan, it is also a humanitarian catastrophe,” he added.
His comments echo those made this week in which he said that the U.S. had achieved “zero” in Afghanistan as he criticized U.S. attempts to “civilize the people who live there.”
On Friday, Putin continued with the theme, saying, “Is this an end to some hegemony of the West?” adding that “lessons […] should be correctly understood to make changes to real policy.
“They say about Afghanistan: ‘we got into there and made a lot of mistakes.’ However, they continue doing the same in relation to other countries,” Putin said, before referring to sanctions as an example of Western countries “imposing their standards.”
The U.S. has imposed a number of sanctions on Russia over, for instance, the SolarWinds cyber hack and election interference.
Moscow was involved in a 10-year conflict in Afghanistan which culminated in a withdrawal in 1989. Unlike the U.S. and its Western allies, Russia has retained its diplomatic staff in Kabul following the American exit.
Moscow has reached out to the feuding Afghan factions, including the Taliban, which it labels a terrorist organization but which Putin said he hoped would be recognized internationally.
“You need to think about the fact that the sooner the Taliban enters, so to speak, the community of civilized nations, the easier it will be to enter into contact, communicate and somehow influence and ask some questions,” Putin said on Friday,
“We are fighting international terrorism right now, all alone, for which we feel abandoned,” the group’s spokesman Ali Nazari told Newsweek.
National Resistance Front forces are now besieged by the Taliban in the Panjshir valley.
Newsweek has contacted the U.S. State Department for comment.
Newsweek
