Taliban no longer considered terrorist group by Russia

The Russian Supreme Court has removed the Taliban movement from its list of terrorist organizations, suspending the ban on its activities in Russia.

Judge Oleg Nefedov, announcing the decision made at the request of Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, stated that the decision should be implemented immediately.

The Taliban movement had been banned in Russia since 2003. Despite this, Moscow has maintained active contact with the Taliban in recent years.

Taliban representatives were even invited to events attended by President Vladimir Putin.

Putin had referred to the Taliban as “allies” and stated that Russia was working to remove them from the terrorist list. In December 2024, the Duma adopted a law that foresaw such a possibility.

According to the document, an organization can be removed from the list of banned organizations if it ceases activities “aimed at promoting, justifying, and supporting terrorism.” This decision is made by a court at the request of the prosecutor general or their deputy.

According to Verstka’s calculations based on open-source data, at least 37 Russian citizens were subjected to administrative or criminal prosecution between 2016 and 2025 due to cases related to the banned group.

One of the recent cases involved journalist Nadezhda Kevorkova. Kevorkova was fined 600,000 rubles for promoting terrorism due to a post on her Telegram channel mentioning the Taliban.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Justice had insisted on the removal of the organization from the banned list.

Ministry of Foreign Affairs Spokesperson Maria Zakharova explained that this was based on pragmatic reasons. The FSB stated that the Taliban was ready to fight the ISIS-Khorasan terrorist organization, which was linked to the attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue near Moscow.

In the attack, 145 people died and more than 550 were injured.

Security Council Chairman Sergey Shoygu stated that allowing the Taliban’s activities was necessary to “strengthen political and economic ties” between Russia and Afghanistan.

The Taliban took control of Afghanistan in 2021 after the withdrawal of US troops from the country.

The government formed by the militants has not yet been legitimately recognized by any state, including Russia, as it has not fulfilled its obligations regarding respect for human rights, the establishment of an inclusive political system, and the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking.