Russia working on Taliban ties, Putin says in Tajikistan

MOSCOW (AP) — President Vladimir Putin says Russia is trying to build relations with the Taliban and that Russia wants to see all the ethnic groups in Afghanistan take part in running the country. Putin’s statement Tuesday came in a meeting with President Emomali Rahmon of Tajikistan during his visit trip abroad since the beginning of the Ukraine conflict. “We are doing everything so that the situation in that country normalizes,” Putin said in Dushanbe, the Tajik capital. “We are working from the premise that all ethnic groups in Afghanistan, as was already said, must properly participate in running the country,” he said.