Russia to Remove Taliban From Terrorist List, Calls on West to Lift Sanctions on Afghanistan

Russia is moving to drop the Taliban’s designation as a terrorist organization, while urging the West to lift its own sanctions on Afghanistan, which the Taliban controls. “Russia is finalizing work to remove the Taliban movement from its list of organizations designated as terrorist,” Alexander Bortnikov, director of the Russian Federal Security Service, announced on Oct. 4 during a meeting of national security chiefs from former Soviet states in Astana, Kazakhstan, as reported by Russia’s state news agency, TASS. The decision stems from the Taliban’s longstanding rivalry with ISIS-Khorasan (ISIS-K), which emerged in eastern Afghanistan in late 2014 and remains one of the most active terrorist factions fighting under the ISIS banner. ISIS-K has declared its aim to establish an Islamic caliphate spanning West and Central Asia....