Russia working on removing Taliban from terrorist list 

Russia has said they are working to remove the Afghanistan’s Taliban from its list of banned terrorist organisations.

“This is a country that is next to us, and one way or another we communicate with them," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday.

The Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan in 2021 after the withdrawal of U.S.-led foreign forces, but have remained until now on a list of organisations that Russia designates as terrorist.

“We need to resolve pressing issues, this also requires dialogue, so in this regard we communicate with them like practically everyone else - they are the de facto authority in Afghanistan.”

Peskov did not elaborate on the pressing issues, but Russia suffered its deadliest attack for 20 years last month when gunmen stormed a concert hall outside Moscow, killing at least 144 people.