RUSSIA REMAINS CONCERNED BY PAKISTAN'S

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 002714 SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 09/10/2018 TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER PK RS SUBJECT: RUSSIA REMAINS CONCERNED BY PAKISTAN'S INSTABILITY, HOPES TO IMPROVE COUNTER-TERRORISM COOPERATION REF: A. MOSCOW 2584 ¶B. STATE 88734 ¶C. MOSCOW 2502 Classified By: Political M/C Alice G. Wells for reasons 1.4 (b/d). ¶1. (C) Following recent comments by Kremlin Foreign Policy Advisor Prihodko and DFM Karasin to the Ambassador expressing concern over the security implications of political instability in Pakistan, we met with MFA Senior Counselor for Pakistan Aleksey Yudintsev on September 9, and stressed that Musharraf's resignation did not affect the security of Pakistan's nuclear weapons, which remain under military control (refs A and B). ¶2. (C) Yudintsev reiterated Russian concern that the political turmoil surrounding the Musharraf resignation drew attention from Pakistan's effort to fight its extremist insurgency (ref C). While the September 6 election of Zarif Zardari as President would temporarily calm the situation, Yudintsev predicted that by the end of the year, tensions between Zardari and Nawaz Sharif, leader of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz, would cause the current government to collapse. The popular Sharif would likely become the next PM, opening up the possibility of continued political turmoil unless the two leaders could reach an understanding on addressing Pakistan's pressing security and economic problems. ¶3. (C) Yudintsev told us that the GOR hoped to get a better picture of the situation in Pakistan when a Russian delegation heads to Islamabad in October for a meeting of the bilateral Working Group on Terrorism. This would be the fourth meeting of the group, which was supposed to convene annually but last met in Moscow in June 2006. Yudintsev explained that the GOR wanted to improve communication regarding each country's counter-terrorism efforts, and would seek an explanation of the Pakistani government's plan to fight extremists. Moscow has been disappointed in Islamabad's failure to respond to requests for information on suspected Chechen extremists training and operating in Pakistan's tribal areas, and would use the meeting to improve information sharing. Yudintsev said that there were no plans to discuss Russian security assistance to Pakistan. BEYRLE =======================CABLE ENDS============================