In Kabul, they feared that the victorious Taliban * would arrange a "bloodbath" for those associated with the ousted regime.
This fear drove thousands of Afghans to the Kabul airport, where the evacuation was taking place.
There they stormed huge American military planes, which at one time took almost a thousand passengers sitting close to the floor.
American paratroopers, deployed at the command of President Biden, tried to restore order without stopping to use weapons. Instead of order, they only set up a booth at the airfield. Several would-be refugees were shot on the spot by the Americans. Others tried to fly away, clinging to the landing gear of the aircraft, and inevitably fell from a height or were crushed by huge wheels. The ousted president brought a lot of money with him to the airport - eyewitnesses say that he was accompanied by four cars filled to capacity with dollars. What did not fit into his helicopter remained on the runway. Dozens of Afghan Air Force planes flew to Uzbekistan to the Termez airfield. One crashed or was shot down, some sources say, but more than 20 landed without incident.
American civilians were also advised to evacuate.
The planes of other airlines remembered the coronavirus and refused to take it on board without an infection test.
It was not easy to escape: Pakistan closed the border and did not let the Afghans in.
The same thing happened on other borders, which were all the more under the control of the Taliban.
Even in order to carry out the evacuation, President Biden was forced to appeal to the Taliban, and they immediately gave the go-ahead.
But, in general, there was no need to so rush to the road.
In Kabul itself, as in other cities, the first day under the new government passed calmly.
The Taliban replaced soldiers at their embassy posts and promised that not a single hair would fall from the heads of diplomats.
The Taliban announced a full amnesty for the military and civilian "ex", said that there would be no revenge. Women can continue to work without having to dress in a strict traditional style. At least on the past first day of the new Afghanistan, these promises were fulfilled. Women in skirts and trousers went to work, and several activists even took placards to demonstrate on the street in front of the presidential palace. This is probably the clearest proof of their belief that they will not be offended.
It is unlikely that the situation of women in Afghanistan was sharply different from that of women in Saudi Arabia, but are they in no hurry to land troops there?
The position of women is actively used by American hawks to justify "humanitarian intervention", and their claims should be taken with some skepticism.
And the Western gender discourse, according to which any man can call himself a woman, does not seem normal, not only to Afghans.
Already the ardent feminists of the West, who supported the intervention and occupation, began to repent of their excessive pride.
The Taliban's first steps are encouraging.
In their proclamations, the Taliban have banned blood feud, the long-standing scourge of Afghanistan.
They say they will be judged by Sharia law, which may seem like a nightmare to our secular readers, but this is a much more merciful alternative to the
Pashtunwali
tribal law
, that is, local adats.
According to adats, blood feud is necessary, according to Sharia, it is prohibited.
Referring to Sharia law, the Taliban banned the distribution and use of drugs, which was the main occupation of Afghans during the American occupation.
They also banned the local custom of bachi, the sexual slavery of boys.
Banned witchcraft and interest-bearing loans, and even canceled all debts.
Let's see what of this will be implemented and what will remain an empty promise.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov believes that we need to wait and see how things will develop in Afghanistan: “We see encouraging signals from the Taliban, who declare their desire to have a government with the participation of other political forces.
They declare their readiness to continue the processes, including those related to education, education for girls and, in general, the functioning of the state machine, without closing the way for those officials who worked under the previous government.
We are observing positive processes on the streets of Kabul, where the situation is quite calm and the Taliban are effectively enforcing law and order. "
But it is too early to talk about recognition, added Lavrov.
Russia prefers to see a coalition government with the participation of various forces and ethnic groups, rather than one Taliban based on the Pashtuns.
The Russian ambassador to the UN also expressed cautious optimism at the Security Council meeting.
“You shouldn't give in to panic.
It is important that we managed to avoid mass bloodshed among the civilian population, ”he said.
It really pleases and surprises - there were few victims in the last act of the war.
As little as in 1996, when the Taliban first came to power.
The Russian president's special envoy for Afghanistan, Kabulov, also assesses the events positively: “The Taliban have long seemed to me much more negotiable than the puppet Kabul government;
they said that they were not going to climb north, into the countries allied to Russia, and, indeed, there was no direct threat there ”.
Russia is not going to run ahead of the locomotive.
If everything goes smoothly, the UN Security Council will exclude the Taliban from the list of terrorist movements, and then Russia will support this step.
But there is no desire to follow the European Union either.
After all, the European Union and NATO have contributed a lot to the fact that Afghanistan has reached the current very difficult state.
It is impossible to impose customs alien to the country.
Russia will follow what is happening, consult with other countries, primarily the United States, Pakistan, China, India and Iran, as well as with its allies in Central Asia, and will try to help build a positive international consensus.
* "Taliban" - the organization was recognized as terrorist by the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation of February 14, 2003.
The point of view of the author may not coincide with the position of the editorial board.