Monday, January 19, 2009

Karzai's New Sponsor - Moscow?

Hillary Clinton recently told the US Senate that Afghanistan is a "narco-state." NATO secretary general Jaap de Hoop Scheffer went after Karzai on the weekend over the rank corruption of his government.

Poor Hamid's been getting it upside the head from the West lately and he's getting antsy. Just in the nick of time he gets a "Hi Neighbour" letter from Moscow offering co-operation on Afghan defence matters. From CBC News:

"As a friendly government to Afghanistan, Russia is ready to offer its co-operation to an independent and a democratic Afghanistan," the statement quoted Medvedev as saying.

The statement did not say how the two countries would co-operate.


The image of Russian tanks rolling back into Afghanistan is beyond bizarre but, of late, Putin has been looking for opportunities to poke a sharp stick into NATO eyes so it's not surprising that meddling in Afghanistan would hold some appeal.

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