Afghanistan's ruling Taliban militia Thursday said Moscow is playing with fire after Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev met Afghan opposition commander Ahmed Shah Masood in Tajikistan.
Abdul Hai Mutmaen, a senior Taliban spokesman in the southern city of Kandahar, warned that the Islamic militia would retaliate if Russia continued backing its enemies in Afghanistan's drawn-out civil war.
"If the Russians continue their military aid to the opposition, this will have dangerous consequences for them. This will bring about losses to them," he told AFP.
"We will be compelled to do something also ... (Afghanistan) can create lots of problems for Russians and give them heavy losses," he added, without elaborating.
Sergeyev met Masood and later Iranian Foreign Minister Kamal Kharazi in the Tajik capital, Dushanbe, Thursday to discuss the latest military situation in Afghanistan's northeastern provinces, Russian sources told AFP.
The Taliban accuse Masood of receiving Russian and Iranian support, while the opposition claim the militia is backed by Pakistan and Arab militants loyal to suspected terrorist Osama bin Laden, who lives in Afghanistan.
The northeast has seen heavy fighting in recent months as the Taliban try to wipe out Masood's northern bases and cut off supply lines linking his major stronghold in the Panjshir valley, north of Kabul, to Tajikistan.
The Taliban's successes last month, especially the capture of the Takhar provincial capital Taloqan, raised fears in Central Asia and Russia that the fighting would spill across Afghanistan's borders.
The Taliban is already blamed for exporting drugs through Central Asia and harboring Islamic militants operating in the region.
Masood has hit back in recent weeks, successfully counter-attacking Taliban positions in Takhar and claiming to have brought his troops to within striking distance of Taloqan.
Mutmaen described Masood, the last hurdle to the Taliban's complete control of the country, as Moscow's "puppet and servant."
He said Russia was against Afghanistan's unification to protect its strategic interests in Central Asia.
Russia has stationed border guards on Tajikistan's 1,500-kilometre (1,000-mile) frontier with Afghanistan.
In May, Moscow threatened to launch air strikes against the Taliban which it accused of training rebels fighting in Chechnya -- KABUL (AFP)
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