Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that the situation in Afghanistan had a tendency to swiftly deteriorate and said Moscow was ready to defend its regional allies if necessary.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday told Emomali Rakhmon, the president of Tajikistan, that Moscow would help the impoverished former Soviet republic contend with the fallout from NATO's exit from neighbouring Afghanistan if needed.
"We are closely watching what is happening in Afghanistan where the situation has a tendency to swiftly deteriorate including against the backdrop of the hasty exit of American and other NATO troops," said Lavrov. Lavrov added that military obligations that Russia had undertaken in the framework of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation , a post-Soviet security bloc it leads and whose other members include Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, remained in full force.