So is Putin going to make a deal with Karzai to fund his government in return for mineral rights, then send in some spetsnaz force to protect him and eventually make it a Russian client state. Russia is already supplying Syria and Eqypt so why not? Yeah it didn’t work out so good for Russia before but you never know.
My own arm-chair general view - US should have never got involved in "nation building" in Afghanistan. It can not be done, and this will be proven in spades before too long.
Should have had minimal footprint, few boots on the ground, stay just over the border. Become another "tribe" in the conflict, albeit one with F-15's, drones and hellfire missiles to allow us to go after Al Qaeda when needed, and broker for their own conflicts.
Sharing the US as a common enemy would go a long way with the Taliban. Do Russians care what happens to the citizens of that region? Of course not. Makes it easy to do business with them.
“So is Putin going to make a deal with Karzai to fund his government in return for mineral rights...”
Explain to everyone which mineral rights. Looking forward to your response...
Thank God somebody is supplying the Egyptian and Syrian govts. The US has chosen to arm foreign Islamic psychopathic predators.