The lower house of Russia’s parliament has given initial approval to a long-discussed bill that would clear the way for Moscow to remove the Taliban’s designation as a terrorist group

Analysts suggest Russia's primary goal is to assert influence in Afghanistan and Central Asia while countering Western involvement in the region.

Russia's lower house of parliament, the State Duma, took a preliminary step Tuesday toward potentially lifting the Taliban's terrorist designation. The Duma passed a bill on its first reading that would allow a court to temporarily suspend an organization's terrorist label.