MOSCOW, Feb. 9 (UPI) -- Russia will not send troops to Afghanistan to battle the Taliban but will help in other ways, a top Kremlin official said Tuesday in Moscow.
Security Council Secretary Nikolai Patrushev reiterated Russia's long-standing vow to never again send soldiers to Afghanistan, where the former Soviet Union lost 14,500 military personnel in its 1979-1989 campaign against Taliban insurgents, RIA Novosti reported.