Afghan opposition commander Ahmed Shah Masood met Russian Defense Minister Igor Sergeyev on Thursday in the Tajik capital Dushanbe, ITAR-TASS reported.
The meeting came as Afghanistan's ruling Taliban continued a major offensive against opposition forces loyal to ousted president Burhanuddin Rabbani.
Recent months have seen an upsurge in fighting in northeastern Afghanistan with the Taliban capturing Masood's key base of Taloqan, capital of Takhar province.
The hardline Islamist militia, which emerged from religious schools in late 1994, controls more than 90 percent of Afghanistan.
Russia, which has close links with the Afghan opposition, in May threatened to launch air strikes against the Taliban, accusing it of training Chechen rebels fighting Russian rule in Chechnya.
But it then ruled out dispatching any ground troops into Afghanistan – MOSCOW (AFP)
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