An investigation reveals that Russians paid the Taliban to kill Americans in Afghanistan.

Russians financed terrorist attacks in Afghanistan – this was carried out by employees of military unit No. 29155 of the GRU of the Russian Ministry of Defense, as stated in an investigation by The Insider and Der Spiegel. Representatives of this unit are believed to be involved in the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal in Salisbury in 2018 and in various acts of sabotage in the EU.

According to investigators, between 2016 and 2020, a series of attacks targeting U.S. soldiers and international coalition forces occurred in Afghanistan.

The Russian authorities paid various Afghan groups for carrying out these terrorist acts. This was reported in a leaked American intelligence report that surfaced in the media in 2020.

The Insider managed to confirm data from the 2020 intelligence report and identify the names of GRU officers responsible for the financing of terrorist attacks in Afghanistan: Lieutenant General Ivan Kas'yanenko, Colonel Alexey Arkhipov, and Artem Rubtsov.

The rewards averaged $200,000 for each U.S. or coalition soldier killed, revealed one former employee of Afghanistan's National Security Directorate (NSD). According to his calculations, Russia paid the Taliban approximately $30 million in total.

To transfer money to Afghan groups, the GRU reportedly used a network of Afghan couriers.

“The trade in precious stones between Russia and Afghanistan was one of the methods for funneling funds for the reward program,” the investigation stated.

In 2019, Afghan intelligence uncovered this operation and detained several individuals.

After the Taliban came to power, according to The Insider, the GRU continued to collaborate with representatives of the group, but now officially.

According to documents from the mail of one of the GRU officers examined by investigators, the Taliban specifically requested assistance from the GRU to deliver “stolen helicopters and planes” (currently located in Tajikistan and Pakistan), “train security service personnel,” and “restore the country’s defense capabilities.”

Background. Recall that, according to the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), Russia intends to remove the Taliban and the Syrian HTS from the list of terrorists. This way, Russia is creating a legal basis for changes in relations with these groups.