Afghanistan Looks to Russia for Military Hardware - Wall Street Journal‎

Kremlin’s more-assertive foreign policy raises potential for clash with U.S.

Afghanistan, battered by worsening security, is reaching out to an old ally and patron—Russia—just as the Kremlin is seeking to reassert its position as a heavyweight on the world stage.

President Ashraf Ghani has asked Moscow for artillery, small arms and Mi-35 helicopter gunships for his country’s struggling military, Afghan and Russian officials say, after the U.S. and its allies pulled most of their troops from Afghanistan and reduced financial aid.

The outreach has created another opening for the Kremlin, stepping up the potential for confrontation with Washington. East-West relations are already strained over such issues as Ukraine and Middle Eastern policy.  “Russia is seizing the opportunity,” a U.S. official said.

Beyond such rivalries, however, the move also reflects Russian concerns that the deterioration of security in Afghanistan could destabilize Central Asia—and bring Islamic extremism closer to its own border.

At an Oct. 16 summit in Kazakhstan, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the situation “was becoming close to critical,” with militant groups looking to expand their reach across the region.  “It’s important for us to be ready to react in concert to just such a scenario,” he told other Central Asian leaders.

Russia launched an air war in Syria last month with the aim, it said, of combating the rise of Islamic State in the region by buttressing its ally, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad. It also has forged a new alliance with Iran and Iraq with the same goals.

The Kremlin’s muscular new foreign policy has raised hopes among Afghan politicians that Russia will come back to their country as a friendlier ally in the wake of the Western drawdown, which has seen the U.S. troop level drop to about 10,000 this year, from a peak of about 100,000 in 2010-11.

On Oct. 15, President Barack Obama announced he was shelving plans to withdraw most of the remaining U.S. forces by the end of his second term. Washington now anticipates keeping around 5,500 troops after January 2017, in an acknowledgment of the disintegrating security situation.

The last Red Army troops withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989. That war was a national trauma on both sides, ending in defeat for Moscow and the eventual collapse of Afghanistan’s communist government.

Alexander Mantytskiy, Russia’s ambassador to Afghanistan, said his government is considering the Afghan requests for military assistance, which he said have increased this year following the withdrawal of most U.S. and allied North Atlantic Treaty Organization forces.

“We will provide some assistance, but it doesn’t mean that any soldier from the Russian Federation will be here on Afghan soil,” he said. “Why should we carry the burden of a problem that was not solved by the Americans and NATO countries?”

The Pentagon in the past purchased Russian-made Mi-17 transport helicopters, and Russia trained Afghan technicians to maintain them. But Moscow’s military intervention in Ukraine in early 2014 prompted the U.S. to end that cooperation.

As Kabul seeks new sponsors following the withdrawal of most U.S. and allied troops, a renewed competition between Moscow and Washington is beginning to take shape.

Mr. Ghani’s spokesman, Zafar Hashemi, said Kabul hopes Moscow will donate the equipment. “Should the Russians ask for payment, the Afghan government will purchase limited equipment, but pay for it from its own, domestically generated revenues,” he said.

Afghanistan’s tax collections amount to less than $5 billion a year. It depends mostly on international largess to pay the salaries of its army and police and provide fuel and ammunition to keep insurgents at bay.  The U.S. is still Afghanistan’s biggest backer: Since the 2001 invasion that toppled the Taliban, Washington has committed more than $109 billion to the country’s reconstruction. The other major donors are Japan and European Union countries.

The U.S. is currently looking for other providers to supply Afghanistan with helicopters, according to the U.S. official and others.  

Afghan forces badly need air support to reverse gains by the Taliban and other insurgent groups, who have put the government on the defensive and encircled major cities. 

Afghanistan has long been of strategic interest to Russia even after the withdrawal of Soviet troops. Moscow backed the anti-Taliban Northern Alliance in the 1990s, providing weapons and support to jihadist commanders who once fought them. - Read More at WSJ
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