Russian govt may have armed Afghan Taliban, obtained videos suggest

The Afghan Taliban have allegedly received new weaponry which appears to have been supplied by Russia, reported CNN in an exclusive.  

The videos obtained by CNN show sniper rifles, Kalashnikov variants and other weapons which experts say have been stripped of any means of identifying their origin. 

Two groups of Taliban, situated in the north and west of the war-torn country, say the weapons were supplied by Russian government sources. 

Another group of fighters claim that they received weapons for free across the Tajik border and were provided by "the Russians."

However, the videos do not provide concrete proof of the trade. Moscow has repeatedly and categorically denied involvement. 

"The Russians have said that they maintain contact with the Taliban, we have lots of other reports from other people they are arming the Taliban ... there is no smoke without fire," Afghan government spokesman Sediq Sediqi told CNN. 

"That's why our intelligence agencies are up to the job to find out what level of support that is to the Taliban," he added. 

Russia's Foreign Ministry has declined and called the accusations "utterly false" and said it was a cover up for the US failure in Afghanistan. 

The foreign ministry further said they maintain contacts with the Taliban to only promote peace talks. 

"I think it is fair to assume they may be providing some sort of support to (the Taliban) in terms of weapons or other things that may be there," said General Joseph Votel, chief of US Central Command, to a congressional committee in March.

In one of CNN's exclusive videos, a Taliban spinter group is seen with the weaponry. The group said they took the weapons from the mainstream Taliban.

"These weapons were given to the fighters of Mullah Haibatullah by the Russians via Iran," said the deputy leader of the group, Mullah Abdul Manan Niazi. He also said the weapons were supplied by Russian to assist the Taliban in fighting Daesh. 

In the second video, features masked Taliban fighters near Kabul with weapons they said were obtained from the northern Kunduz province.

A fighter said the guns came from across the Tajik border. 

"These pistols have been brought to us recently," he says. "These are made in Russia, and are very good stuff."

Experts from the Small Arms Survey examined the videos and have said there is no solid link between the weapons shown and Russia, as the weapons are modern or rare on the Afghan battlefield. An example cited was a JGBG M7 scope on a machine gun. is Chinese made and readily available online.