About 4 million people in Afghanistan need urgent aid: Putin

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The situation is not getting any better in Afghanistan after the United States withdrew from the country in 2021, with terrorist organizations becoming more active, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday.

"The situation in this country, unfortunately, is not getting better. International terrorist organizations, including Al-Qaeda, are becoming more active, building up their potential, and all of you know it very well," Putin told a meeting with the secretaries of the security councils of several countries on the Afghan problem.

The Russian President also noted that Moscow was concerned about attempts by regional countries to use the situation in Afghanistan in order to expand and create infrastructure under the guise of combating terrorism.

"Although these countries are doing nothing that would be required for a true fight against international terrorism," Putin stressed.

Russian data said about four million people in the crisis-stricken country are in need of urgent humanitarian assistance, he said.

"We have established contacts with the leadership of Afghanistan in Kabul. We know that there are good plans for the implementation of major economic projects that could stabilize the situation in the economy," Putin added.

"It is clear that today there is a lot of conflict potential in the world, a lot of conflicts, and we have a lot of conflicts not far from Russia, including in the Ukrainian direction. We understand perfectly well, we are aware of this. But this does not reduce the significance of the situation in Afghanistan," the Russian President revealed.

"For us, it was always important, and today it is doubly important because we do not want any more points of tension to arise near our southern borders," the Russian leader concluded.

The fifth multilateral meeting of secretaries of security councils on the Afghan problem was held in Moscow earlier in the day.

The event was attended by high representatives in charge of security issues from India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, China, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Russia was represented by Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev.

Russian Security Council Secretary Nikolay Patrushev said in early January that the US hastily withdrew its forces from Afghanistan so it can focus on Ukraine.

In an interview for aif.ru, Patrushev stated that the United States's presence in the Asian country did not contribute to the fight against terrorism, however, it resulted in corruption schemes amounting to billions of dollars and soaring production of drugs.

"It turns out that the reasons for the Americans’ abrupt withdrawal from the country included the need to focus on Ukraine, where, in their view, the puppet Kiev regime was making successful preparations for an offensive against Russia," Patrushev said.

Patrushev backed his point by recalling a statement made earlier by the American Secretary of State Antony Blinken that were it not for the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the US wouldn't have been able to aid Kiev as much.

Moreover, the Russian presidential envoy for Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov, stressed that there was evidence pointing out that the US has been attempting to build ties with current Afghan authorities while secretly sponsoring ISIS.

"Yes, there is such data, they [the US authorities] do it not for good, but for harm, because they really want to avenge their shameful military-political defeat in Afghanistan and, in retaliation, they do everything so that peace is not established in this long-suffering land, but even worse is that, in addition to contacts with the armed opposition in Afghanistan, the Anglo-Saxons secretly sponsor ISIS," Kabulov said.

The US withdrawal from Afghanistan caused mayhem at Kabul airport as some Afghans that colluded with the US occupation tried to escape the country. The US officially withdrew in August of 2021 after 20 years of occupation.

Joe Biden's decision to withdraw all US troops from Afghanistan by the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks was a miscalculated decision on all levels - not because they did any good to Afghanistan, but the reason is attributed to how the US left the country. In a war that cost 20 years and 1.5 trillion dollars and was "lost" in 20 days, a lot of things could be happening that are far from good. 

The never-ending costs of US failure, in lives and dollars, are tragic for those living under occupation and others recruited to force it. The poor decisions of the United States will go down in history, never to be forgotten. 

Although the Taliban government is not internationally recognized, Russia and China are convening with representatives of the Taliban in order to restore the humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. The UN estimates that ISIS attacks have resulted in approximately 700 deaths since the US withdrawal in August 2021.

Read more: Russia to US: Pay back 20 years of occupation to Afghanistan

After the Taliban regained control of Afghanistan, the US-backed government was dissolved, leaving behind over $7 billion in central bank assets deposited with the US Federal Reserve Bank in New York.

US President Joe Biden later signed an executive order to freeze the $7 billion, claiming that the funds will be used for humanitarian assistance for Afghanistan and compensating American victims of "terrorism", including 9/11 families.

In response, the Taliban movement saw the US decision as a showcase of theft and US moral decline, according to Mohammad Naeem, a spokesperson for the Taliban political office, as he took to Twitter to say: "The theft of blocked money belonging to the people of Afghanistan by the United States, as well as taking possession of it, is a showcase of the human and moral decline of the country and people".