Why Central Asia stops treating the Taliban* as terrorists and seeks closer ties with Afghanistan

As Central Asian countries gradually stop regarding the Taliban as a terrorist organization, it becomes evident that these states want to maintain good relations with Afghanistan regardless of what government currently reigns in Kabul, says Rustam Burnashev, professor at the Kazakh-German University who specializes in Central Asian security affairs.

“It is relations, especially the economic and transport-logistic, that are regarded here as the means to normalize the situation in Afghanistan and to remove the Afghanistan-related threats that have been concentrating in Central Asia,” he tells Sputnik.

According to him, Kazakhstan simply wants things in Afghanistan to be “normal” and the economy serves as the “main instrument of this normalization.”

“There is a non-quite-linear connection here: the country has become stabilized so we are friends with it. This vector works as well, but there is another vector: we want to be friends with them so we want things to be stable there. Thus, we want economic cooperation with them,” Burnashev explains.

He outlines three “vectors” of the joint ventures that Afghanistan can engage in together with Central Asian states.

1. “Simple economic cooperation”

Namely, there are certain goods that Afghanistan can export to Central Asia (fruits, for example) and import from there.

2. Transport and logistics

“Afghanistan is regarded as an important and economically advantageous transit zone that can effectively connect our [Central Asian] countries with Southern Asia, assuming that the situation in Afghanistan is normalized and certain infrastructure, roads, railroads and warehouses are built,” Burnashev explains.

3. Energy projects

Such projects include the CASA-1000 that would involve supplying electricity from Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to Afghanistan, and TAPI, a pipeline that would funnel natural gas from Turkmenistan to India via Afghanistan and Pakistan.

*Under UN sanctions for terrorist activities

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Power to the people! Explore the new nuclear plants Russia is going to build in its Far East

Russian President Vladimir Putin previously stated at the 2024 Eastern Economic Forum that new nuclear power plants need to be constructed in Russia’s Far East.

Sputnik has looked into which nuclear power plants are there already and what are the plans:

There are currently two active nuclear power plants in the region: the Bilibino Nuclear Power Plant (features four 12 mW reactors) and the floating nuclear power station Akademik Lomonosov (features two 35 mW reactors), both of them located in the Chukotka region.

With the annual energy consumption in the Russian Far East already at a little less than 70 billion kWh and expected to reach 96 billion kWh by 2030, the need for new power-generating facilities in the region seems clear.

Having noted that the apparent lack of electricity stymies the development in the region, such as construction of new industrial facilities and infrastructure, Putin thus tasked the government with developing a new long-term power generation development program for the Far East.

According to the data provided by Russian nuclear power company Rosenergoatom, several new nuclear power plants are expected to be built in the Far East:

🔸The Khabarovsk Nuclear Power Plant, to be constructed in the Khabarovsk region; its two 600 mW reactors are expected to become operational by 2036 and 2038, respectively;

🔸The Primorsky Nuclear Power Plant, to be constructed in the Primorsky Krai; its two 600 mW reactors are supposed to go online by 2039 and 2042, respectively;

🔸Two smaller nuclear power plants are going to be built in the Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) and in Chukotka;

🔸The new floating nuclear power station is also expected to be deployed in Chukotka.

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❗️Sputnik correspondent: The target of Israeli aggression on Syria is the outskirts of the town of Masyaf in the western countryside of Hama province. It's located in the central part of the country.

The correspondent confirmed that the Syrian air defense was able to shoot down most of the Israeli missiles before they reached their targets.

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❗️Sputnik's correspondent in Hama: 4 dead and 18 wounded civilians as a result of Israeli aggression targeting the outskirts of the city of Masyaf in the western countryside of Hama province.

Civilian infrastructure and electricity networks have been damaged during the attack.

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❗️Russian air defense forces destroyed two drones overnight, one over the territory of Belgorod and another over Kursk, the Russian Defense Ministry informed

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Is Biden aware of that himself?

Elon Musk, presumably positioning himself for a role on Trump's team, seems to be dedicating considerable time to the political trolling antics that his potential boss excels at.

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❗️The death toll from airstrikes on the Syrian city of Masyaf has risen to 15, while 34 people have been wounded, the head doctor of a local hospital told Sputnik.

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US’ botched Afghan exit exposes Biden's ‘callous foreign policy’, GOP report reveals

Washington disregarded the security of US personnel on the ground, while prioritizing the “optics of withdrawal” during the messy Afghanistan exodus, according to a 350-page investigative report released by Republican Chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee Mike McCaul. The document holds President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris accountable for the botched pullout.

According to the report:

🔸 Biden’s calls to withdraw the US from the Vietnam War as a senator in the 1970s along with the Afghanistan pullout shows a "pattern of callous foreign policy positions and readiness to abandon strategic partners."

🔸 The State Department received numerous warning signs about the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government but failed to hammer out an escape plan to “safely evacuate US personnel, American citizens, green card holders, and our [Washington’s] brave Afghan allies.”

🔸 The Biden administration’s mismanagement resulted in “exposing US Defense Department and State Department personnel to lethal threats and emotional harm.”

🔸 Former US envoy to Afghanistan, Ross Wilson, who reportedly had COVID-19 at the time, fled the US embassy ahead of his entire staff. Wilson got a foreign service officer to take his test for him so that he could quickly flee Afghanistan.

🔸 The White House “misled and, in some instances, directly lied to the American people at every stage of the withdrawal, from before the go-to-zero order until today.”

The United States hastily withdrew from Afghanistan in August 2021 after a rapid takeover of the country by the Taliban*.

*Under UN sanctions for terrorist activities

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❗️Sweden's largest international airport, Stockholm-Arlanda, temporarily suspended flights overnight after drones were spotted nearby.

Earlier, four drones were detected approaching Arlanda Airport.

Additionally, reports from the night before indicated that drones had been sighted near the city of Uppsala, which is situated north of Stockholm, according to Aftonbladet, a Swedish newspaper.

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