In an interview with TASS news agency, Semyon Grigoryev, the Russian ambassador to Tajikistan, said that the Taliban have not been able to secure Afghanistan’s borders yet.
Grigoryev said that in 2023, many times, extremists tried to infiltrate Tajikistan from Afghanistan.
In the interview, which was published on Monday, he said that they do not see any particular progress in the Taliban's commitment to ensure the security of Afghanistan's neighbouring countries.
Grigoryev added that during this year, the extremists were trying to penetrate the territory of Tajikistan from Afghanistan’s border, but all of the attacks were quickly suppressed by the security forces of Tajikistan.
This Russian diplomat said that Afghanistan is facing a downfall in the social and economic sphere and the country is literally on the verge of a severe humanitarian crisis.
His statements were made while Vladimir Putin and Emomali Rahmon, the presidents of Russia and Tajikistan, discussed Afghanistan in Moscow last month.
The Russian ambassador to Tajikistan said that the serious attention of the leaders of Russia and Tajikistan to the issue of Afghanistan is fully justified and requires continuous coordination.
He also mentioned the increase in the trafficking of industrial drugs from Afghanistan and criticised that the western countries have actually reduced the anti-narcotics programs’ budget of Afghanistan.
The Russian ambassador has also expressed concern about the massive influx of refugees deported from Pakistan to the northern provinces. According to him, in this situation, there is the possibility of altering the ethnic composition of the population in northern Afghanistan.
Grigoryev warned that terrorist elements may exist among the displaced.
He added that Russia will do its best to prevent attacks on its allies.
Earlier, in September, Tajikistan’s National Information Agency reported the killing of three "terrorists" by the country's security forces near the Afghan border. Tajikistan’s State Committee for National Security said that these individuals were members of the “Jamaat Ansarullah” movement and entered the country from the border area of Darwaz district in Afghanistan.
Also, in April, the Tajikistan National Security Committee had announced that two terrorists who entered Tajikistan from the border of Afghanistan had been killed.
Officials of Tajikistan and other Central Asian countries have repeatedly expressed concerns over the increase of terrorist activities in Afghanistan and its spillover to these countries.
