Why did Mulla Baradar and Mulla Yaqub refrain from meeting with Putin's special envoy?
Author: Andrey Serenko, Head of the Analytical Center for Political Scientists of Russia
The January visit of the Russian President's Special Representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov to Kabul failed, according to several sources familiar with the situation in the Afghan capital.
According to them, having arrived in Kabul after the New Year holidays, Zamir Kabulov planned several important meetings. In particular, the Russian special envoy intended to hold talks with the Deputy Prime Minister of the Taliban government Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, and the Defense Minister of the Taliban Mullah Mohammad Yaqub (leaders of the Kandahar faction in the leadership of the Taliban junta).
However, both Baradar and Yakub refused to meet with Kabulov.
Zamir Kabulov also asked the Taliban to allow him to meet with former Afghan President Hamid Karzai. However, this request to the special envoy of the Russian president was also denied.
According to one of the sources, Zamir Kabulov allegedly brought with him from Moscow to the capital of Afghanistan "a certain Pashtun businessman" to discuss some joint economic projects: "However, as they say, there was no fruitful discussion on real topics, and this Pashtun the businessman disappeared somewhere in Kabul."
As a result, during a few days of his stay in the capital of Afghanistan, Zamir Kabulov was able to meet only with the Taliban Foreign Minister Mullah Amirkhan Muttaqi (far from being a heavyweight in the Taliban political hierarchy), UN Special Representative Roza Otunbayeva and Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan Dmitry Zhirnov.
Considering that Zamir Kabulov had previously flown to Kabul in March 2022, that is, he had not been in his area of direct official responsibility for almost a year, such a modest harvest of contacts and negotiations can only mean one thing: the Taliban leaders have lost interest in communicating with the special envoy of the President of Russia for Afghanistan.
Sources report personal claims of the Taliban leaders against Kabulov, which are allegedly based on promises not fulfilled by the Russian official (we have a list of claims, but we will not quote it).
Be that as it may, it is obvious that the Taliban leaders are not ready to conduct a serious dialogue with Zamir Kabulov beyond the perimeter of ritual public diplomatic idle talk.
The failure of Kabulov's January mission in Kabul once again underscores the weakness of Russia's position in today's Afghanistan.
Obviously, this is a sad conclusion against the backdrop of growing activity in Afghanistan and in the near-Afghan political games of the Kremlin's American rivals.
