Moscow:
Russia’s parliament has passed a law allowing courts to suspend bans on groups designated by Moscow as terrorist organizations. The new law, passed by the lower house of parliament, the State Duma, paved the way for Moscow to normalize ties with the Afghan Taliban and possibly with Syria’s new leadership.
It outlines a legal mechanism by which groups can be removed by court order from the country’s official banned list of banned “terrorist” organizations if they cease their terrorist activities. Under the law, Russia’s attorney general could submit a request to a court stating that a banned group has “ceased” its activities “in support of terrorism.” A judge could then decide to remove the designation.
The Taliban were among the first batch of groups added to the banned list in February 2003, and the Syrian HTS was added in 2020.
The Kremlin is pursuing ties with the Taliban after the Islamist group seized power in August 2021, as US-led forces staged a chaotic withdrawal after two decades of war. President Vladimir Putin said in July that the Taliban are now an ally in the fight against terrorism.
However, the expected removal of the Taliban from Russia’s terrorist register would not amount to a formal recognition of his government, or of what they call the ‘Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan’ – a step that no country in the world has yet taken.
There are also calls in Moscow to remove the Syrian group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS) – which led the overthrow of President Bashar al-Assad this month – from Moscow’s list of banned terror groups.
The leader of Russia’s Muslim region of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, said on Monday that Russia needs ties with the new Syrian authorities to ensure stability and prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. Kadyrov is seen as a close ally of Putin.
The Russian deployment in Syria and Afghanistan
Moscow sees a major security threat from Islamist militant groups based in a range of countries from Afghanistan to the Middle East, where Russia lost a key ally with the fall of Assad.
The overthrow of the Assad regime threatens the end of Russia’s presence in the Middle East and its coveted military foothold in the eastern Mediterranean – the Tartus naval base and, further north, the Hmeimim air base, both with a 49-year lease. received after Russia helped save the Assad regime in 2015.
Moscow has used these bases to challenge US supremacy by projecting its military power in the eastern Mediterranean and claiming the role of a global power with vital regional interests. With the end of the friendly regime, Russia’s military position in the Mediterranean is threatened, but this does not mean that Moscow is about to withdraw from the region.
The Kremlin said this week that Moscow was in contact with the new leadership in Syria, where it hopes to retain use of an airport and naval base.
Russia also has a complex and bloody history in Afghanistan. Soviet forces invaded the country in December 1979 to support a communist government, but became bogged down in a long war against mujahideen fighters armed by the United States. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev withdrew his army in 1989, by which time about 15,000 Soviet soldiers had been killed.
In March, gunmen killed 145 people at a concert hall outside Moscow in an attack claimed by Islamic State. U.S. officials said they had intelligence indicating that the group’s Afghan branch, Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), was responsible.
Now, however, the Taliban say they are working to eradicate the Islamic State’s presence in Afghanistan. But Western diplomats say the movement’s path to broader international recognition is stalled until it changes course on women’s rights.
The Taliban have closed high schools and universities for girls and women and imposed restrictions on their movement without a male guardian. It says it respects women’s rights, in line with its strict interpretation of Islamic law.