'Baseless': Russia denies accusation of giving bounties to Taliban to attack US forces

Russia has lashed out at the New York Times report claiming that Moscow's spies had offered rewards to Taliban-linked militants to kill troops of the US-led coalition in Afghanistan. The Russian embassy in Washington DC called these accusations "baseless". 

Also read: Russia offered Taliban-linked militants bounties to kill US troops in Afghanistan: Report

On Friday, the newspaper reported that bounties were offered by spies of the Russian military intelligence service. It gave incentives to militants who attacked the American troops during the time when the forces are being withdrawed to end  America's longest war.

The "baseless and anonymous accusations," published by the newspaper, had "already led to direct threats to the life of employees of the Russian Embassies in Washington D.C. and London," the Russian Embassy in Washington wrote on Twitter.

"Stop producing #fakenews that provoke life threats, @nytimes," it added in a later tweet. 

Russia has had a rough history in Afghanistan, they were struck by heavy losses by Islamist guerrillas, then backed by Washington.

But Russia has more recently been accused by the United States of quietly providing small arms to the Taliban.

According to the newspaper, the Taliban operation was led by a unit known as the G.R.U., which has been blamed in numerous international incidents including a 2018 chemical weapons attack in Britain that nearly killed Russian-born double agent Sergei Skripal.

(Inputs from AFP)