Two senior Afghan officials have visited Moscow in the past months. Late November, the speaker of the Upper House of the Afghan Parliament Sibghatullah Mojaddadi arrived in Moscow soon after the announcement of the victory of Hamid Karzai in the presidential election. This was his first visit in this capacity to the capital of the former Soviet Union.

Mr. Mojaddadi had a very busy programme in Moscow; He met with his Russian counterpart Sergei Mironov and the deputies of the Lower House of the Russian parliament, especially with the head of the Liberal Democratic Party, Vladimir Zhirinovsky. The former leader of mojaheds also met with the leaders of Russian Moslems. He had a meeting with Russia’s chief mufti Ravil Gainuddin at the cathedral mosque in Moscow. The Afghan delegation attended the Friday namaz at the cathedral mosque in Moscow in response to an invitation by the chief mufti.

Early December, a delegation of the Lower House of the Afghan parliament headed by Mohammad Yunus Qanooni visited St. Petersburg and Moscow. The speaker of the Wolesi Jirga took part in the meeting of the Inter-parliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of Independent States in St. Petersburg. Unlike Mojaddadi, Qanooni is the permanent guest of the meeting. Most likely, this time, the speaker of the Lower House of the Afghan parliament selected the delegation himself. The delegation included one of the former opponents of the Northern Alliance, Said Ishak Gillani. Earlier, he came to Moscow with such politicians as Gulabazoi, Shakir Kagar and others.

It’s too early to say about the outcome of the visits. The visits of the two politicians were widely covered in Afghanistan, but the embassy of Afghanistan in Russia did their best not to leak any information about the visits. Russian experts still believe that the Afghan politicians made covert visits to Russia.