Russia legalizes the Taliban

The Taliban, banned as a “terrorist organization” in Russia for more than 20 years, has been legalized and had the label expunged by Russia’s Supreme Court, in another sign of warming ties between Russia and the Islamist group. The development is not surprising. Over recent years, the Russian authorities have been actively meeting with Taliban officials and their inclusion on the terrorist blacklist was increasingly becoming an unnecessary and awkward formality.

• Until last year, Russia had no mechanism to remove organizations from the terrorist list. But thanks to legal amendments passed by parliament — which were seen as being introduced specifically with the Taliban in mind — organizations deemed to have “ceased carrying out activities aimed at propaganda, justification and support of terrorism” and stopped violations of Russia’ Criminal Code were allowed to be “legalized.” The Taliban became the first organization on which the authorities used the new mechanism. However, their exclusion from the terror list does not mean that Russia has officially recognized the Taliban government in Afghanistan.
• Russia added the Taliban to its list of terrorist organizations in 2003. The Supreme Court's judgement on the matter said, among other things, that the Taliban was an “extremist Islamic movement” that “maintains ties with illegal armed formations operating in the territory of the Chechen Republic”. The Taliban did indeed have close contacts with Chechen separatists and recognized Chechnya's independence from Russia.
• But as the U.S. war on Afghanistan dragged on, largely because of the Taliban's successes in guerrilla warfare, the Russian side began to establish contacts with a wing of the group seen as more moderate. In the late 2010s, Russian diplomats even participated in negotiations between the Taliban and the official Afghan authorities in Moscow. So in 2021, when the Taliban seized power in Afghanistan, Russia already had good relations with the movement. In recent years, the Taliban, even with their official designation as terrorists, have actively attended Russian official events, including the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum.

Why the world should care:

Facing international isolation over the invasion of Ukraine, Russia wants to see Afghanistan as an international partner. But so far the scale of economic interaction with the country is extremely modest — only $220 million in trade turnover.