Russia may remove Taliban from list of extremist groups: Putin

A day after Russian President, Vladimir Putin, said Afghanistan's foreign assets should be unfrozen, the leader has claimed that Russia is pondering over removing Taliban from list of extremist groups.

"We all expect Taliban, those people who undoubtedly control the situation in the country, in Afghanistan, we expect the situation to develop positively. Depending on that we will jointly take the decision on excluding them from the list of terrorist organisations. It seems to me that we are getting close to it. Russia's position will be to move in that direction," he said.

However, he also added that this is not a final decision and experts are still mulling over it. He also added that this is an important decision which should be taken the same way the decision of blacklisting the terrorist organisation was taken.

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Putin also appreciated US President Joe Biden's decision to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan.

"The United States president hit the right path. He did it right when he withdrew forces from Afghanistan. He surely had been understanding, maybe without the details but he had been understanding that one way or another it would have become one of the lines for the political attack (in the U.S.) but he did it, he took the responsibility."

His statements have come a day after the leader had urged western governments to unfreeze Afghanistan's financial assets and resume economic support for the South Asian country. Putin claims this will help bring stability in the country, which will further help Afghanistan's neighbouring countries too.

Meanwhile, the US has made it clear that the Biden administration has no plans to release Afghanistan's gold, investment and foreign currency.

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Putin has called on to the US and Europe to "not avoid responsibility for current and future developments" in the country.

The terrorist organisation took control of US-backed Afghanistan government on August 15 and has since formed its own government in the South Asian country. However, Taliban have not been able to bring financial stability in the country, which has been a target of several blasts and attacks by ISIS.

Taliban government has also been unable to pay electricity bills to the neighbouring countries, raising fears of complete blackout in the country very soon.