Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticized the United States’ involvement in Afghanistan, charging that its 20-year military presence in the country has achieved “zero.”
Putin said Wednesday that for 20 years the U.S. military in Afghanistan “was trying … to civilize the people who live there, to introduce their norms and standards of life in the broadest sense of the word, including the political organization of society.”
“The result is sheer tragedies, sheer losses, both for those who were doing that — the U.S. — and more so for the people who live in Afghanistan. A zero result, if not negative,” Putin said.
