ULYANOVSK, Russia - NATO forces should stay in Afghanistan until they have finished their job to ensure stability, Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Wednesday, criticising the planned withdrawal of most combat troops by 2014.
Putin reiterated Kremlin concerns that the pull-out of the
U.S.-led alliance, due to start next year, will leave the
Central Asian region south of Russia vulnerable to militant
violence and drug trafficking.
“It is regrettable that many participants in this operation
are thinking about how to pull out of there. They took up this
burden and should carry it to the end,” Putin said at a meeting
with paratroopers in the Russian city of Ulyanovsk.
“If there is no order in Afghanistan it will not be calm on
our southern borders. The current (Afghan) leadership will have
difficulties keeping the situation under control. NATO member
states are present there, and are performing this function,” he
said.
“We need to help them (NATO). We should not be fighting
there again. Let them sit there and fight.”
The Soviet Union fought a disastrous war in Afghanistan in
the 1980s and Russia ruled out sending troops to aid the
U.S.-led invasion after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
But Moscow has supported the NATO operation by allowing
transit across its territory.
It expanded that support with an agreement that took effect
on Wednesday allowing the alliance to use a transit hub in
Ulyanovsk to send non-lethal supplies in and out of Afghanistan
using the Russian rail network and air transport.
Putin said the transit hub agreement, which has drawn
criticism from Communists and others saying Russia is allowing
an enemy on its territory, in fact benefited Russia – which is
otherwise often at loggerheads with the alliance.
“It corresponds to our national interests. On many other
issues we have disagreements. We have different approaches,
opinions.” Putin said, reiterating his description of NATO as a
“throwback to the past, to the times of the Cold War”.
