Russia opens second front against Taliban

By Vladimir Radyuhin

MOSCOW, SEPT. 24. Russia has embarked on an active political game in Central Asia, stepping up military support for the anti- Taliban forces in Afghanistan and giving greenlight to its ex- Soviet allies to host U.S. military presence on their territory.

Over the weekend, the Russian army chief of staff, Gen. Anatoly Kvashnin, met with the new commander of the anti- Taliban, Northern Alliance forces, Mr. Muhammed Fahim, in Tajikistan. Within hours of the meeting, the Northern Alliance opened a powerful offensive against the Taliban militia. Russia was encouraging the Northern Alliance to capture as much territory from the Taliban before the U.S. began its own operation in Afghanistan, analysts said.

The Izvestia said, ``Russia has quietly opened a second front against the Taliban''. During a weekend telephone conversation, the Russian President, Mr. Vladimir Putin, tried to persuade the U.S. President, Mr. George W. Bush, to rely mainly on the Northern Alliance, rather than American forces, to crush the Taliban regime. Mr. Bush reportedly retorted that Moscow was trying to install a pro-Russian government in Kabul, but promised to consider Mr. Putin's arguments, which analysts said were very convincing.

``In this war, the U.S. has a highly unreliable ally - Pakistan, which has for years supported the Taliban and has many Taliban sympathisers on its own territory,'' the Vedomosti said. ``Russia in this war has a reliable ally - the Northern Alliance... With such an ally you need not fight yourself: it is enough to provide military and financial aid to him and help him exploit the situation in his own interests.''

To prove that Moscow was not trying to upstage Washington, Mr. Putin gave the greenlight to Russia's Central Asian allies to open up their facilities to the U.S. military. Following his telephone conversations with the Presidents of Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Tajikistan on Sunday, Russian television reported that American Air Force planes were bringing U.S. military personnel to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan to set up command and intelligence posts on the borders with Afghanistan.

Summing up the position of Central Asian states, the Kazakhstan President, Mr. Nursultan Nazarbayev, told a news conference today that his country was ready to support the battle against terrorism ``with all the means it has at its disposal''.

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