Hamid Karzai in Moscow to receive aid

Interim Prime Minister of Afghanistan, Hamid Karzai, has visited the Kremlin to reinforce diplomatic links and to receive aid from the Russian Federation.

President Vladimir Putin of the Russian Federation received Hamid Karzai in Moscow, recognising that the relationship between the two countries had known its ups and downs in recent decades but pledging Russian support to the fledgling government of Afghanistan.

No less than 20 memorandums of understanding and protocol agreements were signed between the two countries, reinforcing the fact that the Russian Federation continues to be a major player in Central Asia.

The contracts signed covered areas such as irrigation for agriculture, road works, pipelines,, heavy machinery and lorries.

To note, the Russian Federation is today signing contracts which had already been signed during the regime of President Najibullah, when the Soviet Union backed the Socialist government of the Republic of Afghanistan. At that time, the situation of women in the country reached its highest point, the health care and education systems functioned, the country had reached levels of normality across the board, before the United States of America decided to interfere by backing the Mujaheddin, later the Taleban.

The Taleban were nurtured by CIA sponsors to combat the Mujaheddin, also backed by Washington, in their turn to fight the Soviets. The point is that the Soviet Army was sent to Afghanistan to support the democratically elected government of Dr. Najibullah, a government which was destabilised by the US State Department, through the funding of the Mujaheddin, a government which was not overthrown by its people.

The history of Afghanistan is indeed complex and its relationship with the Soviet Union, later the Russian Federation, has to be clarified on many pages of history.

Timothy BANCROFT-HINCHEY PRAVDA.Ru