Duma plans to revise Soviet appraisal of military conflict in Afghanistan

MOSCOW, December 24. /TASS/. The Russian Union of Veterans of the Afghan War (RSV) has suggested that the Russian parliament should revise a resolution, adopted at a Congress of deputies of the former Soviet parliament 25 years ago, which gave its appraisal of the Afghan war as "detrimental to this country both in political and moral aspects." RSV Chairman Franz Klintsevich has suggested that the Afghan conflict should be given a new, fair assessment on an official level. Franz Klintsevich is a deputy of the State Duma and represents the United Russia faction, which put forward a corresponding initiative. Klintsevich is a member of the Duma Committee on Defense. "Time has come to give a fair assessment of the Afghan war which should necessarily be endorsed on a official level. This is our sacred duty to all those who perished on the Afghan land," Klintsevich told journalists on Wednesday. The Duma might pass a corresponding resolution to this effect by February 15 timed to coincide with the date when the last Soviet soldier abandoned the Afghan soil in February 1989," the MP said. The Russo-Afghan war continued from 1979 until 1989. The former Soviet top political structure - the Politbureau of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, passed a resolution to send Soviet troops to Afghanistan in December 1979. An officially declared purpose of the deployment of the Soviet troops in Afghanistan was "to prevent a threat of foreign military invasion." As a matter of fact, the Soviet troops were dragged into a large-scale military conflict. The pullout of the troops from Afghanistan began in May, 1988. The Soviet Union lost 15,000 servicemen, and 53,000 more servicemen were wounded in the Afghan war. Read more