26 May 2016 16:42

Russian Foreign Ministry: Reports on Moscow's contacts with Taliban are insinuations

MOSCOW. May 26 (Interfax) - The Russian Foreign Ministry has denied media reports alleging that Moscow has had contacts with the Taliban.

"This can't be called other than conjectures and insinuations," Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said at a news briefing on Thursday.

The AP reported on Tuesday with reference to western diplomats in Kabul, that Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansur, who was recently killed by U.S. forces, had likely maintained contacts with Iran and Russia.

The AP suggested that Russia and Iran had presumably contacted the Taliban over the past several months, seeing it as a counterbalance to ISIL (a terrorist group banned in Russia) in Afghanistan.