Russian Fears Confirmed by Wikileaks Docs

(Moscow, Russia) The deputy head of the Russian Security Council, Vladimir Nazarov, visited Washington for a series of meetings with U.S. government officials and expressed concern regarding U.S.-NATO policies in Afghanistan.

Nazarov said Russia supports the U.S.-NATO operation but review of classified information released by Wikileaks indicates not enough is being done about terrorism and drugs.

"We would like to see more effective policies, primarily aimed at fighting terrorism and drugs," he said.

Drug trafficking from Afghanistan is raising concern in Russia; but the coalition forces are not focusing on it as much as they should, he said. Their anti-drug efforts should be more professional and involve more special forces and equipment.

This approach would have reduced civilian casualties, which are unacceptably high now. The secret documents on the Afghan war recently publicized by Wikileaks have confirmed Russia's fears. [ed. bold]

Russian officials have repeatedly warned the international community that regular armed forces are poorly suited for fighting terrorism; Russia has leaned that from experience.

According to Nazarov, Russia's contribution to the U.S.-NATO effort is the military transit agreement. Heh.