KABUL, Nov. 11 (Reuters) - Security in northern Afghanistan had deteriorated and Russia was "seriously worried" about the insurgency spreading to its former Soviet neighbours, Russia's envoy to Kabul said.
Andrey Avetisyan also said there would be more anti-narcotic operations in Afghanistan involving Russian agents, similar to a raid on a drugs factory in the east last month that drew condemnation from President Hamid Karzai.
Avetisyan said NATO had asked Russia for more "possibilities" to transit supplies for troops in Afghanistan but stopped short of saying whether that included transporting weapons.
Security in all parts of Afghanistan had declined, Avetisyan said, but particularly in the north where fighting in some areas was as severe as in insurgent strongholds in the south and east.
"The deterioration of the situation in the north is very worrisome. It worries us seriously because it is closer to us," he told Reuters in an interview.
"It is almost on the border with Tajikistan and Uzbekistan … so what we are afraid of in Afghanistan is extremism, terrorism, drugs coming from it to our direction."
Former Soviet republics Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan act as transit nations for U.S. Afghan supplies and some have reported armed clashes with Islamist groups.
This week the commander of day-to-day operations for U.S. and NATO troops in Afghanistan, Lieutenant General David Rodriguez, told Reuters insurgents had made gains in the north in part due to a lack of foreign military operations there.
However, Rodriguez said this would not delay plans to hand over security responsibility of some areas to Afghan forces from mid-2011. Some of the districts thought to be handed over first are in the north and west of Afghanistan.
Thousands of U.S. troops have been arriving in northern provinces in recent months as part of U.S. President Barack Obama’s 30,000-troop drive announced last December. Avetisyan said this was one reason for an escalation in the violence because more troops attracted more insurgent attacks.
"We support the goals of the international coalition and will continue to support it but some results are long overdue," Avetisyan said.
MORE DRUG RAIDS
Russia has also long been critical of what it calls the West’s "soft" anti-narcotics campaign in Afghanistan, which produces around 90 percent of the world’s opium used to make heroin, and which feeds a major drug problem in Russia.
Officials hailed an unprecedented Russian-U.S. operation last month as a sign of improving relations between Washington and Moscow but the raid, in which four drug laboratories were destroyed, drew sharp condemnation from Karzai.
But Avetisyan said the operation had always been planned in conjunction with Afghanistan’s Interior Ministry and Karzai’s reaction had been because of "misinformation."
Avetisyan said Russia would carry out similar operations in the future, involving unarmed Russian agents, but said the chance of Russian military taking part was "out of the question".
"It is not even being discussed and nobody has asked us."
Avetisyan said NATO had asked Russia for "more possibilities" on supply routes through Russia but said he could not comment on whether the request included carriage of arms.
U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan have been increasingly relying on supply routes through Russia and Central Asia in recent months following a spate of attacks on its convoys coming through Pakistan. Only non-lethal goods are allowed to be transported along these routes.
On Wednesday, NATO diplomats said Russia was expected to let NATO take armoured vehicles to Afghanistan through its territory under an expanded transit deal but would stop short of opening the Russian route to weapons.
"Well if armoured vehicles are unarmed, why not, it’s a means of transportation but generally I will not go into details while discussions are still going on," Avetisyan said.
Russia has always ruled out the possibility of sending troops to Afghanistan but Avetisyan said his country had recently given the Afghan police force "a large amount" of Russian Kalashnikov rifles and ammunition, and could provide more in the future.
