Russia to remove Taliban from its list of banned terror groups, invites them for economic forum

Russia will remove the Taliban from a list of banned terrorist organisations. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov stated that ‘the Taliban are the ones holding real power in Afghanistan’. ‘We are going to remove them from the list of terrorist organisations’, FM Lavrov added. Moscow has fostered relations with the Taliban for years, holding multiple rounds of talks and boosting trade with Afghanistan despite international sanctions. Russia has classified the Taliban as a terrorist organisation since 2003 but has supported relations with the Taliban for a long time.