MOSCOW: Russia’s Supreme Court is expected Thursday to remove the Taliban’s designation as a “terrorist organisation”, a symbolic gesture aimed at building friendly ties with Afghanistan’s de facto rulers.
The Islamist group seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, when American 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 group since then, seeing them as a potential economic partner and ally in fighting terrorism.
The Supreme Court hearing was scheduled to start at 2:00 pm in Moscow (1100 GMT) and will take place behind closed doors, according to the court’s website.
Russia’s prosecutor general asked the court to remove the group’s “terrorist” designation last month, following several trips to Russia by top Taliban officials.
A Taliban delegation attended Russia’s flagship economic forum in Saint Petersburg in 2022 and in 2024, while the group’s top diplomat met Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow last October.
Shifting attitudes
A decision to remove the label would not amount to formal recognition for the Taliban authorities, which are seeking international legitimacy.
But it would help avoid embarrassment for Russian officials meeting representatives from the militant group at high-profile events.
Moscow’s attitude toward the Taliban has shifted drastically over the last two decades.
The group was formed in 1994 during the Afghan Civil War, largely out of former Mujahideen fighters who battled the Soviet Union during the 1980s.
The Soviet-Afghan war, which left thousands of young Soviet men dead and wounded, resulted in a stinging defeat for Moscow that hastened the demise of the USSR.
Moscow put the Taliban on its terrorist blacklist in 2003 over its support for separatists in the North Caucasus.
But the Taliban’s return to power in 2021 has forced Russia and other countries in the region to change tack as they compete for influence.
Russia was the first country to open a business representative office in Kabul after the Taliban takeover, and has announced plans to use Afghanistan as a transit hub for gas heading to Southeast Asia.
In July 2024, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the Taliban “allies in the fight against terrorism”.
Both Russia and the Taliban authorities have been trying to eradicate Islamic State-Khorasan (IS-K), an Islamist group responsible for deadly attacks in both Afghanistan and Russia, including an attack on a Moscow concert hall in March 2024 that killed 145.
Other countries have also sought to foster ties with the Taliban authorities, though no state has yet moved to officially recognise them.
Kazakhstan announced last year that it had removed the Taliban from its list of “terrorist organisations”.
In 2023, China became the first country to appoint a new ambassador to Kabul and has forged growing economic links with its new rulers.
