Russian news agency reported on Monday that the Russian Supreme Court will rule next month to remove the Taliban from the list of banned “terrorist groups”.

Moscow has proposed to the Taliban authorities since the United States seized power in Afghanistan after its chaotic evacuation in 2021.

Tass news agency reported that the Supreme Court is scheduled to hold a hearing on the identity of the Taliban on April 17.

The ban is expected to be lifted after the prosecutor’s office issued a legal request.

President Vladimir Putin signed a law approved by parliament in December, which makes it legally possible to remove the Taliban from the list.

Under the law, the court can make such a ruling at the request of the prosecutor, saying the group has stopped its “terrorist” activities. The Russian FSB security service can then delete the group.

The expected move will not formally recognize the Taliban government and its so-called “Afghan Islamic Emirates”, a step that has not been taken yet.

Moscow’s relationship with Afghanistan has warmed since the United States withdrew from the country – after the Soviet invasion in the 1980s, it has a complex history with the Soviet invasion.

Taliban members even visited Russia at the invitation of the Kremlin, even before the ban issued in 2003, and Taliban members even visited talks in Afghanistan.

Putin said last summer that the Taliban was Moscow’s “alliance” in the fight against terrorism because they controlled Afghanistan and were interested in its stability.

The Taliban government has been in Afghanistan with rival ISIS-K jihadist groups.

In 2024, IS-K claimed to have attacked more than 140 people on the Moscow Concert Hall, Russia’s deadliest terrorist attack in nearly two decades.