Messaging out of Moscow points to the unfolding of a new great game, presumably disturbing for Pakistan. Let us see why recent signals, particularly from Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, merit scrutiny and raise critical questions.

Is Russia settling scores by recognising and openly praising its erstwhile rival, the Afghan Taliban? Is Afghanistan turning into a proxy battlefield yet again? Is Foreign Minister Lavrov's telling the world: you may shun the Taliban, but we will not? And is Russia targeting the United States and Pakistan – partners in the anti-Soviet jihad – because the two are now so close that Moscow sees Islamabad as more of a facilitator of Washington's regional agenda than a neutral partner?

In Moscow's view, the American CIA and Pakistan's ISI engineered the Soviet Union's defeat through the mujahideen, forcing its withdrawal in February 1989. The two agencies later joined hands again in the war on terror, against both Al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban, before the United States chaotically withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021.

The Russian foreign minister first urged all participants of the Moscow Format Consultations on October 5 to acknowledge that the Taliban regime "has been successfully governing the country". Lavrov then showered praise on Taliban security forces for their "uncompromising fight against the Islamic State and other terrorist groups on the Afghan soil".

Why would Moscow go out of the way on the ISIS issue? Most probably because it suspects........

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