Russia is negotiating with Afghanistan to attract workers from this country, the Islamic Emirate's ambassador to Russian Federation Gul Khasan.
According to him, "there are grounds to count on achieving positive results". Khasan emphasized that Afghanistan is ready to offer young, "qualified and professional personnel".
Against this background, the two sides are working to expand air ties, the ambassador added. He raises the question of launching direct flights by Kam Air between Kabul and Moscow. According to the diplomat, they should be expected "in the near future".
At the moment, Ariana Afghan Airlines flights fly between the two capitals once a week from Sheremetyevo Airport.
Last year, Russia excluded the Taliban movement that rules Afghanistan from its list of terrorist organizations, and since then it has become the first and only a country that officially recognizes the Islamic emirate.
Moscow subsequently announced "significant prospects" for cooperation "with an emphasis on projects in the fields of energy, transport, agriculture and infrastructure".
This is a giant change in relations between Russia and Afghanistan. Between 1979 and 1989, thousands of Soviet soldiers died fighting Islamic militants in the country, and Moscow-backed leader Mohammad Hajibullah was killed in 1996, when the Taliban first took Kabul.
Now the times are different, and the priorities are different.
In Russia, following the start of the war with Ukraine, an acute shortage of cadres. According to estimates by the Former School of Economics, the economy is missing 2.6 million workers. By 2030, the deficit could exceed 3.1 million, the Ministry of Labor predicts.
Recently, the Russian authorities have been betting on migrants from India. ΠIn 2025, over 56 thousand work permits were issued to citizens of this country - a record number for nine years.
ΠRecently, Deputy Prime Minister Denis Mantyrov declared readiness to accept an unlimited number of migrants from India to compensate for the acute shortage of labor. ΠIn the second half of 2025, unemployment in Russia will fall twice to a record low level for the entire history of observations - 2.1 percent.
The government also intends to attract more workers from China, Malaysia, Bangladesh and African countries. Afghanistan has not yet been considered in this context. In November, the Taliban regime offered Russia its citizens to work in agriculture, where there is a shortage of 130,000 specialists.