Russia courts Taliban, Pakistan loses its Afghan monopoly — SkimNews
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- Russia invited Taliban officers as observers at its Center-2026 war games in Chelyabinsk (September 28–October 3) — the first such invitation since 2021 — after becoming the first government to recognize Taliban rule in July 2025, following its April suspension of the Taliban's terrorist-group ban.
- On May 27, Security Council secretary Sergei Shoigu signed a military-technical agreement with Taliban defense minister Mohammad Yaqoob Mujahid; Moscow's Afghanistan envoy Zamir Kabulov framed it as refurbishing Soviet-era equipment rather than building new capability.
- Pakistan struck Kunar and Helmand provinces days before the exercises; the UN confirmed at least 10 civilian deaths (mostly children) and tallied 1,100+ civilian casualties from cross-border violence this year, with Pakistan saying it killed 22 militants on October 1.
- Taliban observers at Center-2026 sat in the same category as India, North Korea, and Vietnam, while Pakistan also sent troops — making a Russian "anti-Pakistan bloc" reading hard to sustain, the author argues.
- China is hedging too: the Taliban is pushing a road through the Wakhan Corridor to bypass Pakistan, but Beijing has only set up a new border county in March and is not rushing to fund the route, preferring Kabul and Islamabad repair ties.
- An unverified Afghanistan International report claims the Taliban is buying weapons and drones from Belarus with Indian money; the article notes none of the four parties — India, Belarus, Russia, or the Taliban — have confirmed any contract, and separates this from the documented Russia track.
Why it matters: For Pakistan, the strategic math has inverted: it once managed Afghanistan through the Taliban, but Russia, China, and India are now building direct channels to Kabul. Islamabad's air raids — 10 civilians, mostly children, killed this week per the UN — strengthen the Taliban's case for better weapons. The shift is not a secret deal but a slow loss of monopoly access.
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