Last week, the Russian government claimed that the Andijon protest/riot/uprising (depending on who you listen to) was planned in Afghanistan.
The Afghan government doesn’t believe a word of it, and in turn they have counter-accused Russia of making baseless accusations and conspiring against them. (India too, by the way, are conspiring against the Afghan government).
This kind of war of words is hardly surprising given the history of emnity between the two countries - Russia has tried and failed to exert control of Afghanistan several times over the last couple of centuries. But, as Nathan notes, nost only was the uprising most likely homegrown, but it is always hard to take Russia at its word in situtations like these, due to the trigger happy way it flings around accusations based on conjecture, without ever providing a shred of evidence.
It would certainly be easier to take Russia at face value if it was ever the slightest bit forthcoming with information to bolster its case in these situations. It’s not that what Russia claims is unbelievable. But for the time being anyway it strikes me as much more plausible that if Islamic militants were involved in planning the protests and assault on the prison (of which I’m not even entirely convinced–heck, I’m not even convinced that the attack was planned), they did so from in or near Andijon and not Afghanistan.
- What next?
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