MOSCOW. Oct 23 (Interfax-AVN) - Russia's support for Afghanistan's Northern Alliance has been "a mistake" because territory controlled by the alliance is "a bridgehead for sending drugs to Russia," the head of the Russian drug control agency argued on Friday.
"[In fighting the Taliban,] the U.S. is using the Northern Alliance forces, which we have been supporting until now. This, in my view, is a mistake as the Northern Alliance forces were created to support the regime of Najibullah, but it was they that betrayed him, and later the Northern Alliance became a bridgehead for sending drugs to Russia," Viktor Ivanov, director of the Federal Drugs Control Service, said at the General Staff Academy.