Dynamics of Priorities and Geopolitical Situation in the System of National Interests of Russia and Afghanistan

The establishment by the Taliban* of de facto control over the territory of Afghanistan in 2021 after the withdrawal of U.S. troops determines the relevance of the study on the foreign policy of the country, on which a number of regional and continental projects depend, guarantees of security of the strategically important for the Russian Federation region of Central Asia. The prerequisites for the formation of national interests of Afghanistan and the Russian Federation, their declared priorities and implementation in the framework of foreign policy are considered. The study is based on a dialectical approach. The research used systematic, institutional approaches and statistical methods, methods of content analysis, qualitative analysis of thematic publications, methods of historical research of factors and conditions of implementation of foreign policy of states. Official documents reflecting the composition of national interests, statements of political elites, publications in periodicals, data of national accounts systems and international organizations were used as sources of information. The results obtained indecate similarities and differences in the composition of priorities of foreign policy of the Russian Federation and Afghanistan in the XXI century, the desire for sovereignty as the basic trend of the policy pursued by the countries. It is shown that for both countries the pursuit of sovereignty in foreign policy is associated with the aggravation of confrontation with the United States and its partner countries in military-political and economic alliances. The article illustrates the differences in the state of sovereignty guarantees between Russian and Afghan foreign policy. The author presents arguments in favor of the irreversibility of appealing to regional and global centers of power in the foreign policy of both countries in order to increase their legitimacy, strengthen their resource potential and, ultimately, conduct an independent domestic and foreign policy. Further research on the selected issues is mainly determined by the accumulation of empirical data on the Taliban’s foreign policy and the formal declaration of its goals. * It is recognized as a terrorist organization in the Russian Federation.