Russia Paid Taliban Fighters to Target U.S. Forces, Investigation Reveals

Russia’s military intelligence agency (gru) paid Taliban forces and other terrorist groups in Afghanistan tens of millions of dollars to attack United States and coalition forces, according to an investigation by the Insider and Der Spiegel published on January 8. Once the couriers completed their mission, they received documents for asylum in Russia.

• The scheme offered payments of up to $200,000 per U.S. soldier killed.
• Russia paid about $30 million to the Taliban.

The Russians wanted the Taliban to spend more time killing Americans and less time killing Afghans. They relied on financial awards from Russian funding to encourage fighters to incur the greater risks in attacking the U.S. rather than Afghan targets. Russia’s intent with the Taliban evolved from minimal assistance and cooperation to proactively bleeding the United States.
—Douglas London, former cia chief of counterterrorism in south and southwest Asia

Uncovered: Afghan intelligence discovered the scheme in 2019 when it found $650,000 in the home of Rahmatullah Azizi, a gru agent later identified as the ringleader of the courier network. Using money disguised as payments for gemstones, Azizi funded terrorist organizations and incentivized attacks on U.S. and allied forces.

Azizi was based in Russia, but he traveled to Afghanistan at least 13 times between 2017 and 2019. His payment program was linked to multiple Taliban attacks, including:

• a roadside bombing of a nato convoy in a village in Daman province in 2018 that killed 11 children and eight Romanian soldiers
• a suicide bombing aimed at private British security firm G4S in Kabul in 2018, killing three and wounding two
• an attack on a U.S. military convoy on a highway connecting the Logar province to Kabul in 2019
• an attack on Camp Shorab, which housed Afghan soldiers and a U.S. garrison of a few hundred Marine advisers
• a suicide bomber attack on Bagram Air Base in 2019 that killed three U.S. marines and wounded three U.S. service members

After the U.S. pulled out of Afghanistan and the Taliban took over in 2021, previously detained members of this gru-run network were released and sent to Russia with new identities. This has made it nearly impossible for the U.S. to hold them accountable.

Putin’s tactics: Trumpet editor in chief Gerald Flurry has long warned that Russia under the leadership of Vladimir Putin would use such covert and evil tactics to advance his dark ambitions. In 2017, he wrote:

Putin … is not just an authoritarian leader. … This is a man with beastly power and with a beastly desire to rule the world! He is a vengeful, monstrous friend of the devil with all sorts of anti-God policies. He is steeped in secrecy, deception, manipulation, aggression, intimidation, coercion and force, and there is far more about him that we do not know.

To learn more about Putin’s prophesied role, read The Prophesied ‘Prince of Russia.’