Russia and Allies to Raise Guard at Borders With Afghanistan - nytimes

MOSCOW — Russia and its allies will have to step up their military activity in the border regions near Afghanistan to prevent militants fanning out from the continuing struggle there to Central Asia and possibly to Syria,  President Vladimir V. Putin and senior Russian officials said on Friday, Russian news agencies reported.

“Terrorists of all kinds are gaining influence and do not hide their plans for further expansion,” Mr. Putin told a meeting of the leaders of the Commonwealth of Independent States, a grouping of former Soviet republics, in a resort town in Kazakhstan, in remarks carried on the presidential website. “One of their goals is to break through into the Central Asian region.”  

He added, “It is important that we be ready for coordinated action to respond to any such attempts.”  The leaders of the group, composed of former Soviet states, agreed to establish a joint task force to protect their borders against external threats from Afghanistan.

Mr. Putin spoke a day after the White House said it would extend the United States’ military mission in Afghanistan until at least 2017. The Russian government swiftly interpreted the policy shift as an admission of a deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, where the Taliban recently overran the city of Kunduz, before retreating two weeks later.

As envisioned at the meeting on Friday, the new effort would increase the number of border guards and other security officers, as well as forming a rapid-reaction force to respond to any crises on the border with Afghanistan.

Among the C.I.S. states, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have a common border with Afghanistan.

This would not be the first time the Kremlin has asserted the terrorist threat to Central Asia emanates from the United States’ actions in Afghanistan. But analysts have often accused Moscow of deliberately exaggerating the threat to justify an expansion of its military and political presence in the region. - Read More at NYT

Russia and Allies to Raise Guard at Borders With Afghanistan

Afghan Plan to Expand Militia Raises Abuse Concerns

In Reversal, Obama Says U.S. Soldiers Will Stay in Afghanistan to 2017