A former Soviet soldier who chose to stay in Afghanistan following the Red Army withdrawal in 1989 has died, Afghan officials said on Wednesday.
Bakhretdin Khakimov, believed to be in his 60s and known as Sheikh Abdullah after converting to Islam, died of carbon monoxide poisoning from a leaking heater in the western city of Herat, local officials confirmed to AFP.
A representative from Herat's forensics office said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding his death.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid also confirmed his passing and said he had been taken prisoner after coming to Afghanistan with Soviet forces, before converting to Islam and getting married.
About two million Afghans are thought to have died during the Soviet Union's decade-long involvement in Afghanistan, during which they tried to support an allied communist government.
The Soviet War in Afghanistan was a nine-year conflict involving the Soviet Union, supporting the Marxist government of the Democratic Republic of Afghanistan against the indigenous Afghan Mujahideen and foreign 'Arab-Afghan' volunteers. The mujahideen found other support from a variety of sources including the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Kingdom, Pakistan, Egypt, China and other nations. The Afghan war became a proxy war in the broader context of the late Cold War. The initial Soviet deployment of the 40th Army in Afghanistan began on December 24, 1979 under Soviet premier Leonid Brezhnev. The final troop withdrawal started on May 15, 1988, and ended on February 15, 1989 under the last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev. (Photo by: Mikhail Evstafiev/Pictures From History/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)
An international coalition of countries sent arms to anti-Soviet insurgents known as the mujahideen, wearing down Soviet forces who suffered at least 15,000 losses.
Historians say Russia's eventual withdrawal and the subsequent political fallout hastened the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Abdullah was a military intelligence officer and was injured in a 1985 battle, he told AFP in 2015.
He said he owed his life to his Afghan enemies, who found him and treated him.
“I feel very ashamed because I damaged this country, caused losses to people,” he said at the time.
“I stayed in Afghanistan because Afghans are very kind and hospitable people.”
He later worked as a healer and at a museum in Herat, which contains exhibitions about the Soviet invasion of 1979 and the Afghan resistance.
The Soviet withdrawal also precipitated the civil war that gave way to the rise to the Taliban, which ruled the country from 1996 to 2001.
The US withdrawal from Afghanistan last year paved the way for a Taliban comeback, with the hardline group staging a brutal takeover in August 2021, after the precipitous exit of western forces.
Blockchain is a form of distributed ledger technology, a digital system in which data is recorded across multiple places at the same time. Unlike traditional databases, DLTs have no central administrator or centralised data storage. They are transparent because the data is visible and, because they are automatically replicated and impossible to be tampered with, they are secure.
The main difference between blockchain and other forms of DLT is the way data is stored as ‘blocks’ – new transactions are added to the existing ‘chain’ of past transactions, hence the name ‘blockchain’. It is impossible to delete or modify information on the chain due to the replication of blocks across various locations.
Blockchain is mostly associated with cryptocurrency Bitcoin. Due to the inability to tamper with transactions, advocates say this makes the currency more secure and safer than traditional systems. It is maintained by a network of people referred to as ‘miners’, who receive rewards for solving complex mathematical equations that enable transactions to go through.
However, one of the major problems that has come to light has been the presence of illicit material buried in the Bitcoin blockchain, linking it to the dark web.
Other blockchain platforms can offer things like smart contracts, which are automatically implemented when specific conditions from all interested parties are reached, cutting the time involved and the risk of mistakes. Another use could be storing medical records, as patients can be confident their information cannot be changed. The technology can also be used in supply chains, voting and has the potential to used for storing property records.
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At a glance
Global events: Much of the UK’s economic woes were blamed on “increased global uncertainty”, which can be interpreted as the economic impact of the Ukraine war and the uncertainty over Donald Trump’s tariffs.
Growth forecasts: Cut for 2025 from 2 per cent to 1 per cent. The OBR watchdog also estimated inflation will average 3.2 per cent this year
Welfare: Universal credit health element cut by 50 per cent and frozen for new claimants, building on cuts to the disability and incapacity bill set out earlier this month
Spending cuts: Overall day-to day-spending across government cut by £6.1bn in 2029-30
Tax evasion: Steps to crack down on tax evasion to raise “£6.5bn per year” for the public purse
Defence: New high-tech weaponry, upgrading HM Naval Base in Portsmouth
Housing: Housebuilding to reach its highest in 40 years, with planning reforms helping generate an extra £3.4bn for public finances
LILO & STITCH
Starring:Sydney Elizebeth Agudong, Maia Kealoha, Chris Sanders
Director: Dean Fleischer Camp
Rating: 4.5/5
Kat Wightman's tips on how to create zones in large spaces
Area carpets or rugs are the easiest way to segregate spaces while also unifying them.
Lighting can help define areas. Try pendant lighting over dining tables, and side and floor lamps in living areas.
Keep the colour palette the same in a room, but combine different tones and textures in different zone. A common accent colour dotted throughout the space brings it together.
Don’t be afraid to use furniture to break up the space. For example, if you have a sofa placed in the middle of the room, a console unit behind it will give good punctuation.
Use a considered collection of prints and artworks that work together to form a cohesive journey.
