Afghanistan crisis
'Don't want militants under the garb of refugees': Putin
Moscow: Russian President Vladimir Putin has said the Afghan refugees fleeing Taliban cannot be settled in its neighbouring countries even temporarily as "militants showing up here under cover of refugees" isn't acceptable to him, Russian news agencies reported.
Putin criticised the idea of some Western countries to keep the refugees from Afghanistan in neighbouring Central Asian countries until the time their visas to the United States and Europe were ready, reported Reuters citing the Russian media.
"Does that mean that they can be sent without visas to those countries, to our neighbours, while they themselves (the West) don't want to take them without visas?" TASS news agency quoted Putin as telling leaders of the ruling United Russia party, the report stated.
"Why is there such a humiliating approach to solving the problem?" he said.
The United States had forged a secret deal with a number of countries to shelter at-risk Afghans in a desperate attempt to rescue those who worked for the US government, Reuters reported last week.
Russia, which allows visa free travel to ex-Soviet countries, has opposed this move, Putin said, the report added.
"We don't want militants showing up here under cover of refugees," TASS cited Putin as saying.
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