The situation in Afghanistan cannot be allowed to collapse, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said at a news conference in Dushanbe.

“The situation [in Afghanistan] cannot be allowed to collapse again, as this would be too hard for the Afghan people, who have suffered from the presence of NATO for 20 years,” Lavrov said after a meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers.

Lavrov urged the international community to pay more attention to the mobilization of humanitarian aid and other assistance for Afghanistan, saying the US and its allies should bear the greater burden of expenditure on reconstruction of Afghanistan.

Commenting on the escalation in the Panjshir province, the foreign minister said Russia had always called for the situation in Afghanistan to be settled through nationwide dialogue.

The Taliban was designated a terrorist organization, according to a ruling of Russia’s Supreme Court on February 14, 2003.

There are no plans to stop Russian gas supplies to Finland from Friday, May 13, reports from Finnish media are “another newspaper hoax”, Russian presidential spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Friday.

“Gazprom supplies gas to various consumers in Europe, including countries – members of NATO. Gazprom has repeatedly shown its reliability as a company that supplies energy resources to the European continent. Therefore, these reports are most likely just another newspaper hoax,” Peskov said.

According to Peskov, there is no information about a possible termination of these deliveries. “I must mention that you need to clarify information about payment regime with Gazprom. Because there is a decree of the President [of Russia Vladimir Putin] on a new gas payment regime [in rubles]. I’m not sure of the specifics of how Finnish companies pay when they have to, and whether they make [them] under the new rules,” the spokesman added.

Helsinki is expecting to apply for NATO membership, Finnish President Sauli Niinisto and Prime Minister Sanna Marin announced on May 12. Russia immediately reacted to the news by announcing possible reciprocal steps, both military-technical and otherwise, if Helsinki becomes part of the military bloc. Together with Finland, its closest neighbor, Sweden, is also thinking about joining NATO. According to experts interviewed by Izvestia, the participation of Helsinki and Stockholm in the US-led military bloc will fundamentally change the political alignment in Europe.

According to Finland’s state television and radio company Yle as of May 9, 2022, 76% of its citizens support joining NATO. “Such a sharp change in public opinion is associated with Russia’s special military operation on the territory of Ukraine. It was a shock for Finnish society and the political class – they refused to believe in a possibility of this,” Director General of the Russian Council on International Affairs Andrey Kortunov explained to Izvestia. “The uncertainty is rising for Finland. It is changing its attitude towards NATO and, in a sense, it is justifying its desire to guarantee its security given the shift in geopolitical conditions,” he added.

The question is how stable this attitude is, the expert noted. It is not known whether such support for NATO will continue in Finland in a few months or years. Nevertheless, the political leadership decided not to wait.

Together with Finland, its closest neighbor, Sweden, also plans to join NATO. “With the admission of these two countries into its ranks, NATO will make gains in the northwestern European zone. In terms of infrastructure, Norway will also be strengthened, which is quite vigorously involved in the activities of the alliance,” Head of the Center for Arctic Studies at the Institute of Europe of the Russian Academy of Sciences Valery Zhuravel told Izvestia. “Taking into account the fact that the land border of Finland with Russia is about 1,300 km, for Moscow this is a matter of principle,” he added.