• Opinion: Midwives in Afghanistan are silent leaders of our society

US intelligence sources have concluded that the Kremlin tried to tangle up the Doha peace process by offering money to the Taliban. In return, the extremists, while sitting down to negotiate with the Washington representative, had to attack NATO soldiers stationed in Afghanistan. The newspaper The New York Times published the news that threatens to further thinning Western relations with Russia.

In charge of such a mission there were, supposedly, individuals with an increasingly long shadow in the West: members of Unit 29155. The most elite branch of Russian Military Intelligence - known as the GRU - is noted for its alleged involvement in, among other events, the poisoning of the former spy Sergei Skripal in 2018 and an attempted coup in Montenegro in 2016. Three of his agents visited Catalonia before the illegal referendum in October 2017.

The Western Intelligence community considers that one of the main tasks of this unit is to destabilize all kinds of scenarios, abroad, to tip them in favor of Russia. Afghanistan, where the United States is in the midst of an agreed withdrawal with the same Taliban that it overthrew in 2001, is one of them. This is clear from a report offered to President Donald Trump last March, and that has come to light now thanks to the leaks of a series of officials to the newspaper.

According to their information, members of Russian Intelligence secretly offered loot to fighters close to the Taliban in exchange for wiping out Western coalition forces in Afghanistan. This included murdering American soldiers. All this in the framework of the peace talks in the Arabian Peninsula. It is believed that the plan was successful, and that some elements associated with the extremists, or mere criminals, received juicy financial compensation.

According to UN data, at least 3,400 civilians were killed in Afghanistan in 2019 , the majority in Taliban attacks or in attacks by the Western coalition, which supports Afghan security forces. At least 22 members of US military personnel died in that country last year. After an attack last year in which 12 people died, including a US soldier, Trump announced the suspension of the peace process. However, this followed soon after.

US intelligence has not clarified which of these deaths are suspected to be a direct consequence of Russian interference, which they report based on interrogations of insurgents. Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of Russian leader Vladimir Putin, claims to have received no news of such allegations. Taliban spokesman Zabibullah Mujahid denies such allegations and any relationship with the Intelligence services. He considers the news an attempt to smear them.

The Moscow negotiations

The US does not know the exact reasons for the Russian plan. Some officials, according to the New York Times , believe it is revenge for a battle that occurred in eastern Syria in 2018, in which possibly hundreds of Russian mercenaries were killed. Others think that it is a simple maneuver to run aground the plans of Trump to withdraw his troops from Afghanistan before the elections of this November, with what he plans to sign somewhat electoral.

During 2019, Moscow tried to host its own peace negotiations. Among his guests were the Taliban cofounder Abdul Ghani Baradar and former Afghan President Hamid Karzai, as well as other politicians and members of Afghan civil society. However, in February of this year, the United States announced the achievement of a peace agreement with the extremists, which included a timetable for their withdrawal from the country and the opening of an intra-Afghan dialogue that is running aground at times.

Proof of the fragility of the process is that this Saturday, two employees of the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission died when a limpet bomb exploded in their car during a transfer in Kabul. It is the latest of 12 similar attacks in the Afghan capital in the past month, leaving 12 civilians dead and 40 wounded. The Taliban, who initially aspire to establish what they call an Islamic emirate, have not claimed responsibility for such attacks.

Given the lack of progress in the negotiations, partly due to government paralysis after months of internal power struggles, Washington's plans continue. CNN reports that the Trump Administration is finalizing preparations to withdraw nearly 4,000 soldiers with a deadline this fall. The US would reduce its presence from 8,600 to 4,500 military personnel , the lowest number since it entered the country, 19 years ago soon.

According to the criteria of The Trust Project

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