U.S. Secretary of state Mike Pompeo held a telephone conversation with the foreign Minister of Russia Sergey Lavrov, during which he proposed not to pay remuneration the representatives of the movement “Taliban” (banned in Russia). The content of the conversation revealed by the newspaper the New York Times.
According to the publication, this telephone conversation took place on July 13. According to the newspaper, this is the first known case when the White house officially addressed to Russia due to allegations of collusion with the Taliban. This is contrary to the official position of the White house, which called the reports a hoax.
As explained to the newspaper a source in conversation Pompeo made clear to Lavrov that there is a “red line”. He added that the Secretary was enraged by the fact that intelligence agencies have reported on payments for the heads of the American military.
Earlier, the US Deputy Secretary of state Steven Began said that Washington will take harsh retaliatory measures if the information about the collusion of Moscow and the terrorist group “Taliban” (banned in Russia) confirmed. The politician stressed that any such information will be thoroughly investigated at the intergovernmental level.
The New York Times on 26 June, citing intelligence reported that the Russian military intelligence secretly offered to pay for the killing of American soldiers in Afghanistan. Thus, Moscow allegedly wanted to disrupt the peace negotiations, the U.S. and the Taliban, says the publication.
In Russia, accusations are called unfounded. The accuracy of the information was difficult to confirm and various American agencies: not all of the U.S. intelligence community believes the evidence is sufficiently convincing.
