Russia, the most sanctioned country in the world, is adventuring into new partnerships. This week, Afghanistan’s Taliban, which took over the country last year, has struck the first major international economic deal, signing a provisional deal with Russia to supply gasoline, diesel, gas, and wheat to Afghanistan. The deal involves Russia supplying around one million tonnes of gasoline, one million tonnes of diesel, 500,000 tonnes of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) and two million tonnes of wheat annually.
Now, what do we know about the Taliban? The UN mission in Afghanistan has documented numerous human rights violations by the Taliban, including erosion of women’s rights to the point when girls are not allowed even to finish their 12-year-old school education, extrajudicial killings of former government and security officials, as well as cruel, inhuman and degrading punishments and extrajudicial killings of individuals accused of “moral” crimes and the excessive use of force by law enforcement officials. No country formally recognises the group, and western countries said the group needs to change its course on human rights, particularly those of women, and prove it has cut ties with international militant groups in order to gain formal recognition.
The deal between the Taliban and Russia puts over 1600 companies from the US, Europe, the UK and Asia, that keep operating in Russia on a full or limited scale, on a par with the group that keeps committing countless human rights violations and abuses.
B4Ukraine calls on companies from the democratic world to put values before profit and recognize the threats that Russia poses to the world - not only openly by waging wars, committing atrocities in Ukraine and disrupting global rules-based, but also by supporting the rule of people who terrorise civilians.