The United States is concerned about Russia’s presence in Afghanistan and its interactions with Taleban fighters, US Defense Secretary Jim Mattis said on Friday. “We have seen Russian activity vis-a-vis the Taleban,” Mattis said during a news conference in London on March 31. The comments come after US General Curtis Scaparrotti, NATO’s supreme allied commander in Europe, told a US Senate committee on March 23 that he had seen evidence of increasing Russian efforts to influence the Taleban “and perhaps even to supply” the militant group. Meanwhile Moscow denies it provides aid to the Taleban, which is fighting the US-backed government and US forces in Afghanistan. Mattis added that he had not yet decided whether to recommend an increase in US troop numbers in Afghanistan. This comes as on February Gen. John Nicholson, commander of US forces in Afghanistan, had requested several thousand new troops for Afghanistan.
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