DUSHANBE (Islamweb & News Agencies) - Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in ex-Soviet Tajikistan early on Monday to meet a senior leader of the opposition of neighboring Afghanistan.
Putin arrived in the Tajik capital just past 3 a.m. after attending a 21-nation Asian summit in the Chinese city of Shanghai and was met by the Central Asian country's president, Imomali Rakhmonov.
The two leaders went immediately to Rakhmonov's guest house in the city center and opened talks. Burhanuddin Rabbani, still recognized by the U.N. and most governments as the legal president of Afghanistan, arrived at the house soon after.
Tajik officials said Putin planned to spend no more than two hours in Dushanbe before flying on to Moscow.
Accompanying Putin on board his aircraft was Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov and Russian Security Council Secretary Vladimir Rushailo. Two other close aides and allies of Putin were also in the city -- Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov and Nikolai Patrushev, head of the FSB domestic intelligence service. (Read photo caption below)
Rabbani fled Kabul when the hardline Taliban movement seized the capital in 1996. He now heads the Northern Alliance opposition movement which holds up to 10 percent of Afghan territory and is led by ethnic Tajiks and Uzbeks from the north of the country.
Putin fully backs the U.S-led campaign against the Taliban, who have been sheltering Saudi-born Osama bin Laden, prime U.S. suspect in last month's strikes on New York and Washington.
He has also offered to increase support for the Northern Alliance's forces. Other senior officials from the Alliance, including foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah and military commander Mohammed Fahim, were also in Dushanbe on Sunday.
A meeting with Rabbani would probably provide a considerable moral boost for the Alliance.
PHOTO CAPTION:
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov, right, speaks with his Tajik counterpart Sherali Khairulayev, left, in the Tajik capital Dushanbe, Sunday, Oct. 21, 2001. The head of Russian Federal Security Service Nikolai Patrushev is seen behind at center. Others are unidentified. Senior officials from Russia, Tajikistan and the opposition government of Afghanistan met in the Tajik capital Sunday night to discuss military and political issues and the makeup of a future coalition government in Afghanistan.(AP Photo/ Maxim Marmur)
- Oct 21 7:15 PM ET