Russia, Taliban share intelligence in struggle against Islamic State

PanARMENIAN.Net - Russian President Vladimir Putin is turning to an old enemy -- the Taliban -- to share intelligence as the number of ISIS fighters grow in regional neighbor Afghanistan, CNN News reports.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the contact between Moscow and the Afghan Taliban only involves intelligence-sharing and information exchange regarding the fight against ISIS.

Putin has long worried about thousands of jihadists from Russia's Caucasus region and the former Soviet republics going to fight with ISIS in Syria.

He may be trying to cut off the pipeline of fighters closer to home, in Afghanistan, one expert told CNN.

"The ties between ISIS and the insurgency in the north Caucasus, the fact that there are people from the north Caucasus fighting in Syria -- maybe not as many as the Russian government says, but certainly a good number, including in leadership roles -- means that Russia does see ISIS and a lot of the other Islamist groups as a particular threat, in a way that maybe the Taliban isn't," said Olga Oliker of the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington. "So the Russians may think they (the Taliban) are the lesser of the available evils."

Lt. Gen. Mark Hertling, a CNN military analyst, said a map shows the situation, with Afghanistan bordered on the north by former Soviet republics Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan and Kazakhstan between those nations and Russia.

"Russia and Mr. Putin are very concerned about the passage of terrorists, insurgents, Islamists between those borders," Hertling said.

Working with the Taliban presents some risk for Putin, who has been boldly extending his reach with aggressive moves in Syria, Ukraine and with North Korea.

For their part, the Taliban issued a statement Friday, December 25, denying any contact with the Russian government. The Taliban denied needing any help in the fight against ISIS but maintained they had the right to request assistance from other nations.