Report: Russia’s NATO envoy says Russia can help rebuild Afghanistan _ with Western funds
By APWednesday, January 27, 2010
Russia offers to help Afghans _ with Western money
MOSCOW — A Russian business daily quotes the country’s NATO envoy as saying Russia can help rebuild Afghanistan — as long as the West provides the money.
Kommersant’s report Wednesday cites Dmitry Rogozin as saying Russia could restore more than 140 buildings erected by Soviet engineers between 1952 and 1988.
Rogozin says power plants, highways, electricity lines and oil pipeline networks could also be refurbished. He says Western countries that cannnot send soldiers should finance it.
The Soviets provided financial and military support for the Marxist Afghan government during the Cold War, and sent troops to defend it against the U.S.-backed Mujahideen resistance in the 1980s Soviet-Afghan war.
Russia now provides limited logistical support for NATO- and U.S.-led operations there.
