"There is a firm impression that to distract the attention of the world community from numerous miscalculations made during the more than 15-year stay of the military contingent of the United States and NATO in Afghanistan, some people, including through their assistants in Afghanistan, continue to make attempts to slander Russia, while covering up their own actions to support terrorists, first of all, Daesh militants," the statement said.
The statement specified that despite the Afghan authorities assurance to curb baseless accusations against Russia, Afghan Border Police Gen. Abdul Raziq recently said about Russian alleged financial and weapon supplies assistance to Taliban in cooperation with other countries, while the Fox News channel manipulated public opinion in its coverage combining different reports in one context over the issue.
"The US Fox news channel used a well-known method of public opinion manipulation combining in one informational context the reports about unidentified helicopters in the Kunduz province, bordering Tadjikistan, and about goods trafficking across Tadjik-Afghan border with further insinuations of Afghan pseudo-analysts concerning possible visit of Taliban by Russian military councilors and providing financial and logistic support to the Taliban movement," the statement said.
On May 10, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that the claims of the United States that Moscow was supplying the Taliban with weapons were baseless and unprofessional, and specified that Moscow was only working with the Taliban in order to assist the implementation of a UN Security Council decision requested by the Afghan government that would allow the group to take a role in the political process.
