Russia - Central Asia-Caucasus Institute and Silk Road Studies ...

Russian-Afghan cooperation from a regional perspective
Russia 493
Russia’s regions were involved in international trade since early Soviet
times, but the devastated post-civil war economy and Stalin’s autocratic
regime made difficult any cooperation with such similarly weak adjacent
countries as Afghanistan. However, extraordinary opportunities for
Soviet firms arose during the 1929 Afghan civil war as Afghanistan’s
breakup into several centers of power severed the northern regions from
their traditional British-Indian markets. It was then that Soviet state-run
agencies successfully penetrated the northern Afghan karakul wool and
agricultural trade. This zone of influence was maintained during the
post-WWII years when Afghanistan benefited from a short-lived USSR-
US cooperation that extended to their relations in distant Afghanistan.
During the 1980s Soviet-Afghan trade took place at the inter-state, interregional,
and sometimes even inter-city levels. For example, Russia’s
Altai province maintained ties in various fields with the Afghan province
of Baglan. In 1980s many cooperative agreements were signed. Thus, the
“Altaistroy” state construction company operated for many years in
Afghanistan’s northern areas.
After the Soviet breakup new opportunities for inter-regional Russian-
Afghan ties re-emerged. For instance, the Afghan community in Altai (in
all about 300 people) 31 offered themselves as intermediaries for economic
linkages between Asiatic Russia and Afghanistan, Pakistan, the UAE,
etc. Some of the Afghan emigres had money at their disposal, so this
would have been advantageous for all. But this sensible proposal was
rejected by local Altai business circles. Primarily former Communist
party activists or government officials, they preferred to make money on
a family/corporate basis. This short-sightedness disappointed many
entrepreneurial Afghans and prompted them to flee to the West.
31
Boyko, V.S., “Vihodtsy iz Azii v torgovo-ekonomitcheskoi zhizni I vneshnikh
sviazakh Zapadnoi Sibiri v XX .– Sibir v strukture transaziatskikh svyazei,”
Problemy prigranichnoi torgovli i mezhregionalnogo vzaimodeistviia, Barnaul, 2000; and
also his “Afghanskaia obshshina na Altae: osnovnye cherty sotsio-kulturnogo
profilia.,”
Etnographiia Altaia i sopredelnye territorii, Barnaul, 1998.