MOSCOW. Jan 10 (Interfax) - The decision to postpone the presidential election in Afghanistan was made due to pressure from the United States, which wants the vote to go "according to its patterns," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
"The decision to postpone the election was apparently made under the influence of the U.S., which needs more time to prepare to conduct the upcoming vote according to its patterns and plan the peace process in the IRA according to its own scenario," the ministry said in a statement available on its website.
"This decision was made despite numerous assurances by Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and the Afghan elections commission that the election dates announced earlier must be strictly abided by," it said.
"The initiators of this step are clearly unmoved by the outrage of many of the country's citizens, which, in light of conditions in Afghanistan, may evolve into growing domestic political tensions with far-reaching consequences. It looks like Afghan society's opinion is of secondary importance to the incumbent IRA leadership when Washington's interests are involved," the ministry said.
"Against this background, it's not surprising that the country's leadership decided not to send official representatives to the Moscow-format meeting last November, even though there was a chance to enter into dialogue with Taliban [banned in Russia] emissaries for the first time during the conflict in Afghanistan," it said.