New Russian Law Will Remove Taliban’s “Terrorist” Label, HTS Could Be Next

The Russian parliament has passed a law that would allow courts to suspend bans on groups designated as terrorist organisations by Moscow.

The new law, passed by parliament’s lower house, the State Duma, paved the way for Moscow to normalise ties with the Afghan Taliban and potentially with the new leadership of Syria.

It outlines a legal mechanism for groups to be removed from the country’s official banned list of outlawed “terrorist” organisations by order of a court if they cease terrorist-related activity. Under the law, Russia’s Prosecutor General could file a request with a court outlining that a banned group has “ceased” its activities “in support of terrorism.” A judge could then rule to remove the designation.

The Taliban was in the first batch of groups to be added to the banned list, in February 2003, and Syria’s HTS was added in 2020.

The Kremlin has been courting relations with the Taliban after the Islamist group seized power in August 2021 as US-led forces staged a chaotic withdrawal after 20 years of war. President Vladimir Putin said in July that the Taliban was now an ally in fighting terrorism.

However, the Taliban’s expected removal from Russia’s terrorist registry would not amount to a formal recognition of its government, or what it calls the “Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” – a move no country in the world has yet made.

There are also calls in Moscow for the removal of Syrian group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham (HTS)–that spearheaded the toppling of President Bashar al-Assad this month– from Moscow’s list of banned terror groups.

The leader of Russia’s Muslim region of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov, on Monday said Russia needed ties to the new Syrian authorities to ensure stability and prevent a humanitarian catastrophe. Kadyrov is seen as a close Putin ally.

Russia’s Stake In Syria And Afghanistan
Moscow sees a major security threat from Islamist militant groups based in a string of countries from Afghanistan to the Middle East, where Russia lost a major ally with the fall of Assad.

The toppling of the Assad regime threatens the end of Russia’s presence in the Middle East and its coveted military foothold in the eastern Mediterranean region– the naval base of Tartus and, further north, the Hmeimim Air Base, both with 49-year-leases received after Russia helped to save Assad’s regime in 2015.

Moscow has used these bases to challenge American supremacy by projecting its military power in the eastern Mediterranean and claiming the role of a world power with vital regional interests. With the end of the friendly regime, Russia’s military foothold in the Mediterranean is threatened, but this does not mean that Moscow is about to withdraw from the region.

The Kremlin, this week, said that Moscow was in contact with the new leadership in Syria, where it hopes to retain the use of an airfield and a naval base.

Russia also has a complex and bloodstained history in Afghanistan. Soviet troops invaded the country in December 1979 to prop up a Communist government but became bogged down in a long war against mujahideen fighters armed by the United States. Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev pulled his army out in 1989, by which time some 15,000 Soviet soldiers had been killed.

In March, gunmen killed 145 people at a concert hall outside Moscow in an attack claimed by Islamic State. US officials said they had intelligence indicating it was the Afghan branch of the group, Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K), that was responsible.

However, now the Taliban says it is working to wipe out the presence of Islamic State in Afghanistan. But, Western diplomats say the movement’s path towards wider international recognition is stalled until it changes course on women’s rights.

The Taliban has closed high schools and universities to girls and women and placed restrictions on their movement without a male guardian. It says it respects women’s rights in line with its strict interpretation of Islamic law.