November 27, 2010: Russia recently completed delivery of 20,000 AK-47 type assault rifles and 2.5 million rounds of ammunition to Afghanistan. All this was donated to the Afghan National Police, specifically for units in and around Kabul. The Russians didn't want the weapons going to police units out in the countryside, because weapons and ammunition tend to disappear more frequently out there. Lax leadership and poor control of weapons and equipment makes it easy for police to "lose" weapons and ammunition they have actually sold to someone (sometimes the Taliban, but more often a middleman who then sells to the highest bidder, which is usually a drug lord or Taliban group.) The cops in Kabul are more professional, mainly because that's where all the government big shots and foreigners are, and more attention is paid to police training and leadership.

The Russians knew all this because when they were in Afghanistan during the 1980s, the communist government they supported suffered from the same problems. Russia has an informant network in Afghanistan, to keep track of the drug gangs, and via this operation they know that Afghans still have a lax attitude when it comes to government property.