Russia’s Supreme Court has removed the Taliban from the country’s list of terrorist organizations, lifting a designation Moscow imposed in 2003, after the group was added to a corresponding list by the U.N. Security Council. In a session closed to the public on Thursday, Russia’s high court granted a request by the Prosecutor General to suspend the ban on the Taliban’s activities.
The move comes roughly 3.5 years after the Taliban returned to power in Afghanistan, following the withdrawal of U.S. occupation forces. For even longer, Moscow has hinted that it would drop the Taliban’s terrorist designation once the U.N. Security Council reached a similar decision.
Though the Taliban remained a “terrorist organization” in Russia until today, the Kremlin has openly cooperated with Taliban representatives for years, inviting them to Moscow and remaining in contact in Afghanistan. In December 2024, Vladimir Putin signed legislation empowering Russian courts to lift terrorist designations at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office. In late March 2025, the agency formally petitioned the Supreme Court to remove the Taliban from Russia’s list of terrorist groups.
In December 2024, the U.N. Security Council unanimously added another 14 months to the mandate of its team monitoring sanctions against the Taliban established in 2011 in response to its “ongoing violent and terrorist activities.” At the same time, the Security Council’s Chinese and Russian delegations urged a more constructive relationship with today’s Taliban that shifts the UNSC’s anti-terrorism focus to other organizations like Da’esh.