"On June 23, 19 people were killed and many others were wounded in a terror attack in Dagestan, in Russia.

In this week’s edition of “The Hunt with WTOP national security correspondent JJ Green,” Dr. Hans-Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Project, says the Taliban may be culpable."

“Dr. Hans Jakob Schindler, Senior Director of the Counter Extremism Project breaks down the terror attack in Dagestan on YouTube News Channel, GLOBAL with JJ Green.”

"Hans-Jakob Schindler, a Middle East expert at Counter Extremism Project (CEP), believes Russia's Foreign Ministry might be expecting something in return for delisting the Taliban as a terrorist group. But that might be easier said than done."

"Hans-Jakob Schindler, an expert on the Middle East at the international organization "Counter Extremism Project" (CEP), says that although he is not familiar with the internal decision-making processes of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, it can be assumed that Russia expects some form of quid pro quo for the offer to remove the Taliban from its terrorist list."

“... What does that mean? Although he does not know the internal decision-making processes in the Russian Foreign Ministry, says Hans-Jakob Schindler from the International Centre for Counter-Terrorism (ICCT) in The Hague. However, it can be assumed that Russia expects "something in return" for the offer to remove the Taliban from the terror list. However, that could cause problems: "The Taliban are always very willing to accept advance payments, but if there is something in return, things get very complicated with them." The German Afghanistan expert Thomas Ruttig sees the Kremlin's initiative as "a kind of salami tactic: very small steps towards official recognition - which the Taliban certainly likes." The next step after being removed from the terror list could be the recognition of the Taliban as a legitimate state power in Afghanistan, experts believe.”

"Russia is continuing to blame the U.S. and Ukraine for the terror attack on the Crocus City Hall concert venue last Friday that killed 137 people.

On this episode of “The Hunt with WTOP national security correspondent JJ Green,” Dr. Hans Jakob Schindler, senior director of the Counter Extremism Project, says because of Moscow’s “blame game,” we may never know the truth."