I didn't do it, but if I did, you deserved it.
Russia Denies Paying Bounties, but Some Say the U.S. Had It Coming
Russia’s grievances against what it sees as American bullying and expansion into its own zones of influence have been stacking up for decades.
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/03/world/europe/russia-bounties-putin-afghanistan.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article
By Andrew Higgins and Andrew E. Kramer
July 3, 2020
MOSCOW — <snip>
President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia responded with an ominous warning, saying weapons in the separatist regions could easily be sent “to other zones of conflict” — which many took to mean Afghanistan.
<snip>
Russian officials have scoffed at the idea they would hire killers from a radical Islamist group that is banned in Russia as a “terrorist” outfit and that shares many views of the Afghan fighters who killed so many Red Army soldiers, and those of Islamic militants who caused Moscow so much pain in Chechnya during two wars there.
In remarks to a state news agency on Monday, Zamir Kabulov, Mr. Putin’s special envoy for Afghanistan and a former ambassador in Kabul, dismissed the Taliban bounties report as “outright lies” generated by “forces in the United States who don’t want to leave Afghanistan and want to justify their own failures.”
Amid a torrent of outraged denials, however, there have been pointed reminders that, in Russia’s view, the United States, because of its overreach overseas, deserves to taste some of its own medicine.
<snip>
Remembering, of course "... Syria, where U.S. forces killed scores of Russian mercenaries in 2018". Are they buying "paybacks"?
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