MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th August, 2022) The freezing of Afghan assets by the West paralyzed the country's banking sector and related sectors of the economy; this could deprive Afghanistan of the chance to abandon drug production, the director of the Department for New Challenges and Threats at the Russian Foreign Ministry, Vladimir Tarabrin, told Sputnik.
He noted that back in May 2021, before the US troops left Afghanistan, US Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction John Sopko stated in a report that the country was close to a humanitarian disaster.
"At least 23 million people were in need of urgent food assistance. Add to this the freezing of Afghanistan's financial assets by Western countries, which ensured the paralysis of not only the banking industry, but also related industry and agriculture," Tarabrin said.
"In these most difficult conditions, the cultivation of opium poppy and the production of drugs remain almost the only source of income for the Afghan population. Given the drought, the lack of seeds and fertilizers, the prospects for their replacement with legal crops can hardly be seen," the diplomat said.
