Russia rules out military technical cooperation with Taliban

It is a prohibited movement, says official

The Taliban movement is prohibited in Russia and so they will not have any military technical cooperation with such a movement, said Dmitry Shugaev, Director of the Federal Service for Military Technical Cooperation of Russia. Russia supplied Mi-17 helicopters to Afghanistan in the past but the contract was with the U.S. and they did not service the helicopters. They were serviced by European enterprises without our consent, Mr. Shugaev said. “We bear no responsibility for these aircraft. We will not take them back from Afghanistan and we will not even try doing this because the Taliban movement is a prohibited movement in Russia. And we have no military technical cooperation with such a movement,” he told a group of visiting journalists at the ongoing Army 2021 exhibition.