In a closed session on April 17, the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation "temporarily" lifted Russia's ban on the Taliban. The request came from the office of the prosecutor general.

This motion was based on a decree President Vladimir Putin had issued a year ago, making it possible for the Taliban, an ultraconservative political and religious movement in Afghanistan, to be removed from Russia's list of terrorist organizations. The Taliban regained power in Kabul in 2021 after the withdrawal of international coalition forces from Afghanistan.

According to Russian law, any Taliban member entering Russia must be arrested and could face up to 20 years in prison on charges of engaging in terrorist activity. In practice, though, no Taliban member has been detained on entering Russia since 2016.

That was when the Kremlin opened unofficial negotiations with the Taliban. Since then, Taliban representatives have repeatedly visited Moscow and St. Petersburg and were even in attendance there on the sidelines of the 2024 International Economic Forum.

The Russian media continued to refer to the Taliban as a "terrorist organization, banned in Russia." However, this changed in 2024, when Putin started to describe the Taliban as "allies in the fight against terrorism."

The United States does not designate the........

© Deutsche Welle