Putin says Russia needs to work with the Taliban

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit via a video link at his residence outside Moscow, Russia

Russia needs to work with the Taliban government in Afghanistan, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday at a meeting of a China- and Russia-led security bloc, the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO).

Speaking via video link at the conference held in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan, Putin said Russia supported a United Nations conference on Afghanistan and that world powers should consider unfreezing Afghanistan's assets.

REUTERS / Reporting by Olzhas Auyezov and Maria Kiselyova; Writing by Alexander Marrow; Editing by Hugh Lawson