Spy claims too grave to ignore

US intelligence agency reports that Russia’s military spy agency, GRU, paid Taliban militants a bounty to target and kill US and coalition forces in Afghanistan are deeply disturbing. They demand full investigation. Donald Trump insists he was never told about the intelligence. And the White House has cast doubt on the credibility of reports that, if true, disclose deadly, surreptitious interference by Vladimir Putin to aid the Taliban in its war against the US and the NATO-led coalition partners, including Australia.

Despite Mr Trump’s denials, US officials say the high-level intelligence was circulating in Washington in January and discussed at a meeting of the US National Security Council in March. They also claim Mr Trump was provided a full written briefing in the President’s Daily Brief document on February 27 and that details also were contained in the CIA’s classified World Intelligence Review on May 4.

Britain, which like Australia has fought side by side with the US in Afghanistan since 2001, reportedly was told formally by US officials about the Russian bounty payments only last week. Whatever Mr Trump was or was not told, what is clear, as his close friend, Republican senator Lindsey Graham, said, is that full disclosure of the Russian actions is essential. Nothing short of a tough response from the President will suffice. A car bomb attack in which three US servicemen were killed in April last year near the vast Bagram Air Base has been cited as an example in which Russian spy money was paid to incite and reward Taliban killing. If so, it would be unthinkable for Mr Trump not to retaliate against the Kremlin. Facing a battle ahead of the November election, he doubtless hopes US involvement in Afghanistan is almost at an end. But he must show that the US and its coalition partners will not tolerate such action.

The GRU is the same notorious Kremlin spy agency that was responsible for the novichok nerve agent attack on former Russian military officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter, Yulia, in the UK in 2018. The system of bounty payments to the Taliban for killing coalition forces appears to be another part of former KGB Colonel Putin’s asymmetric warfare against the West, or perhaps an attempt to avenge the ignominious defeat of the old Soviet Union in Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Despite cosying up to Mr Putin, Mr Trump claims he has been “tougher” on Russia than previous presidents. His response to Moscow’s perfidiousness needs to demonstrate that toughness.