Russia and Afghanistan: from the Russian perspective, the Great Game has never ended

Please join our next meeting (on Zoom, no in-person meeting) at 12.30 p.m. on Tuesday 12 October 2021 where we will have Mr. Evgeny Belenkiy speak on “Russia and Afghanistan: from the Russian perspective, the Great Game has never ended”.

The topic will cover subjects such as how the Taliban takeover reflects in what Russian politicians say and omit; Taliban-ruled Afghanistan as a natural threat to Chinese and Russian interests the actual Great Game and the role of Afghanistan as its main area, Russia’s involvement in suppressing the Basmachi movement on both sides of the Russo-Afghan border; Soviet aid to Afghanistan in the 1920s-30s; the complex relationship between Afghanistan, the Soviet Union, the United States and Great Britain during WWII; Soviet interference in Afghanistan and the ‘Soviet War’ of 1979-89 as one of the ‘hot’ sectors of the Cold War and the new incarnation of the Great Game, Russia-US cooperation on the side of the Rabbani Government and the Northern Alliance; Private contractors as proxies for large powers; Russia’s relations with the Taliban after their takeover; and Russia’s relationship with Afghanistan and the influence it has on Russia’s relationship with the US.

Evgeny is the Bangkok Bureau Chief and Regional (ASEAN) representative of the Russian International Information Agency “Rossiya Segodnia” where he has worked since 2009. Prior to this, he worked at the English language service of the TV channel Russia Today (now RT Channel). During 2007-9, he wrote and presented a daily TV program titled “The Media Mirror”, a review of Russian daily newspapers and weeklies for English-speaking viewers. He was stationed in Bangkok before then from 1996-2006 where he wrote Op/Ed articles for The Bangkok Post and The Nation, and in 2004-6 he presented a weekly international news review program on Thai Digital TV 1 (first digital TV channel in Thailand, now defunct). He has worked for other news agencies of Russia and is the author of three books, “A Short History of Thailand”, “You Yet Know Me Little Go” and “Alexander Olarovski, the first Russian Envoy to Siam”.

In 2007, he was awarded the TAT “Friend of Thailand” Award in the Media category for a series of articles and books on Thai Culture and History published in Russia.