Moscow (TDI): Russia’s Supreme Court on Thursday removed the Taliban’s designation as a “terrorist organization”, a symbolic gesture aimed at building friendly relations with Afghanistan’s de facto rulers.
Taliban seized power in Afghanistan in August 2021, when US forces supporting the country’s globally recognized government pulled out.
Moscow, which called the US withdrawal a “failure”, has taken measures to normalise ties with the Taliban authorities since then, seeing them as a potential economic partner and ally in fighting terrorism.
Supreme Court Judge Oleg Nefedov said in a ruling, “The previously established ban on the activities of the Taliban — included on the unified federal list of organizations recognised as terrorist — has been suspended.”
“The decision enters into legal force immediately,” he added. The Taliban authorities lauded the move as a major development in ties between Afghanistan and Russia.
“With this decision, the only remaining obstacle to further political and economic collaboration between the two nations has been removed,” Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi said in a meeting with Moscow’s ambassador to Kabul, Dmitry Zhirnov, according to a statement released by the Afghan Foreign Ministry.
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Russia’s Prosecutor General asked the court to remove the group’s “terrorist” designation in March, following several visits to Russia by top Taliban officials.
A Taliban delegation attended Russia’s major economic forum in Saint Petersburg in 2022 and in 2024, and the group’s top diplomat met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov in Moscow last October.
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The decision to suspend the label does not amount to formal recognition for the Taliban government, which is seeking international legitimacy.
But it helps avoid embarrassment for Russian officials meeting Taliban representatives at high-profile events.
