DUSHANBE, December 29, Asia-Plus – The Sunday Times (UK) reported on December 27 that a senior Afghan militant commander has claimed that Russian President Vladimir Putin held an unpublicized meeting with Taliban chief Mullah Akhtar Mansour in September to discuss possible Russian support.

A Taliban commander told The Sunday Times that his group had been promised Russian arms and financial support only weeks before a resurgence in violence that has seen key districts in the southern province of Helmand fall under Taliban control.

“Putin is said to have met Mansour over dinner at a late-night meeting on a military base in Tajikistan in September,” the newspaper said.

It quoted a Kremlin spokesman as saying the reports were “not relevant.”

The newspaper notes that Russia president is known to be concerned that ISIS militants are gaining a foothold in Afghanistan, which borders the former Soviet satellite states of Turkmenistan and Tajikistan.

E will recall that Russian news agency Interfax last week quoted Russian president’s special representative for Afghanistan Zamir Kabulov as saying that Russia''s interests "objectively coincided" with the Taliban in the fight against Islamic State, which has established a foothold in eastern Afghanistan.  He reportedly said channels of communication had been established with the Taliban to exchange information.

Meanwhile, the Taliban denied reports that representatives had met Russian officials to discuss the common threat from Islamic State in Afghanistan.

Reuters reported on December 27 that the Taliban said in a statement that it was in contact with countries in the region but had not discussed support against Islamic State, which it calls Daesh.

“The Islamic Emirate has made and will continue to make contacts with many regional countries to bring an end to the American invasion of our country and we consider this our legitimate right," it said, using its formal name, according to Reuters .

“But we do not see a need for receiving aid from anyone concerning so-called Daesh and neither have we contacted nor talked with anyone about this issue,” the statement said.

Moscow has been concerned about the possible spread of the radical movement from Afghanistan into neighboring states including Tajikistan or Uzbekistan.

Taliban militants have been engaged in a bloody struggle with groups declaring loyalty to Islamic State, particularly in the eastern province of Nangarhar, where they are challenging the Taliban for leadership of the insurgency.  The struggle has also been linked to an internal power battle within the Taliban, where several factions have rejected Mansour''s leadership claims.