Who'd have thought?

Russia is again looking to expand her influence in Central Asia by offering military supplies and training to the Afghan government, but doesn't want to do it for free.

There is no doubt that Medvedev knows a return to power by the Taliban is a bad thing, as it will destabilize the former Soviet central Asian states (Tajikistan, Kazakstan, Turkmenistan, etc) and weaken Russian security on that awfully long border between Russia and the rest of Asia. What I find surprising is that Medvedev has the balls to say someone else needs to pay for his "assistance". He has even suggested NATO pay the bill... now that's rich!

If Russia does sell helicopters and training to the Afghans, then I'm betting it will be in exchange for some sort of mineral rights deal, seeing as how it has recently become all the talk that Afghanistan is now sitting on $3 trillion worth of mineral and resource reserves, including uranium, lead, gold, silver and coal... all of which Russian companies are VERY good at extracting and marketing. Much better than the native Afghanis are, anyway.

A couple hundred million dollars worth of Hind, Havoc and Hokum A 'copters and pilot training in exchange for 10 years of mining rights in the Northern Mountains along the former Soviet border? I could see Medvedev doing that pretty easily.