Russia demands Washington, US allies unblock Afghan assets

Moscow is pressing Washington and its allies to unfreeze Afghanistan’s national assets, Russia’s special Presidential Representative for Afghanistan and Director of the Foreign Ministry’s Second Asian Department Zamir Kabulov said at consultations on Afghanistan in Moscow on Wednesday.

"We resolutely demand that the US and its allies unconditionally unblock Afghanistan’s national financial assets in order to provide the authorities with the opportunity to exercise their legal right to pursue an independent financial and economic policy," he insisted.

The steps offered by the West to allegedly alleviate the situation, such as the creation of a trust fund or minting new banknotes, are demonstrative in nature and "aimed at relieving itself of responsibility, on the one hand, while on the other hand, at keeping in its hands on the levers of influence over the country’s system of government administration that is being formed," Kabulov noted.