Robert Fox
On the day that the (Afghanistan) capital was liberated, it was Russian-made T-55 tanks that paraded through the streets of the devastated city.
While the British and Americans have concentrated on providing aerial support for the alliance, Mr Putin has gone out of his way to ensure that Russian military hardware has been available on the ground in Afghanistan.
At least 50 T-55 series tanks and 30 armoured personnel carriers were supplied by the Russians to the alliance a few weeks ago. With them came tons of tank and heavy machine-gun ammunition, spares for tanks and trucks, and fuel and lubricants for tanks and helicopters.
The equipment was accompanied by teams of Russian military advisers and trainers, who are believed to have drawn up the alliance’s rudimentary assault plans for its successful assaults on the towns of Mazar-i-Sharif and Pul-i-Khumri.
There are even reports that some of the leading tanks and attack helicopters may have been crewed by Russian mercenaries.
The Russian advisers were matched by a few dozen United States and British special forces acting as forward aircraft controllers for the American air attacks.
By backing the alliance covertly and overtly, Mr Putin appears to have succeeded where his five predecessors, from Leonid Brezhnev to Boris Yeltsin, failed in establishing Moscow’s influence across Afghanistan – and all this without a Russian life lost.