This is a second time around
Why doesn’t Putin burn the poppy fields?
That’s right; what we called the “Soviet invasion of Afghanistan” in 1979 was actually aid to an Afghan government that requested the help (just as we did in Vietnam). In the same way, the cost of the intervention was too high, the Soviets pulled out after a long war, and the government they assisted survived a few more years without them before crashing & burning.
Russia has been in Afghanistan as part of the US coalition. (And of course for many years previously). I’m not sure why this is in the news?