Russia's positive attitude towards the Taliban revealed in March of 2017. Putin's special envoy to Afghanistan, Jamir Kabulov, also said that the removal of foreign troops from Afghanistan is very logical. He also criticized the presence of US and NATO forces for a long time in Afghanistan.
Looking back, the development trend of the Taliban with Russia is somewhat understandable. Three reasons have been highlighted in BBC News. First, the Taliban kidnapped two Russian citizens in 2013 and 2016. The Taliban gave freedom to two Russian citizens after a long discussion.
Secondly, in the rise of IS militants in Afghanistan, Moscow was slightly scared. Moscow fears, IS militants can spread in Asia and Russia. That's why Russia leaned towards the Taliban. The Taliban also took advantage of this. They assured neighboring countries that IS militants will remain in Afghanistan.
Thirdly, Russia wants to use Taliban militants as a shield to prevent IS In 2015, the special envoy of the Russian President, Jamiar Kabulov, announced, "The purpose of the Taliban militants and our intentions are the same. We want to fight IS militants. '