Passenger Air Communication Resumed Between Russia and Afghanistan

Passenger air communication between Russia and Aghanistan has been rssumed.

As RIA Novosti was told by the head of the representation of the Afghan state air company Ariana in Moscow Lotfullah Taslim, the first flight Kabul - Baku - Moscow - Baku - Kabul was made on Monday.

According to him, the first 50 passengers, all of them Afghans, flew from Moscow to Kabul on a Boeing-727 aircraft late in the evening.

Taslim noted that the air service between Russia and Afghanistan was interrupted in 1996 when the Taliban came to power in Kabul.

The accord between Moscow and Kabul on recommencing air communication was reached in April 2002 in the course of the visit of the Afghan Minister of Civil Aviation and Tourism to Russia.

For the time being the flights will be made by the Ariana air company on Mondays. Further on, it is planned to add a Kabul - Tashkent - Moscow flight.