Russia on Thursday became the first country to recognize the Taliban government as the legitimate authority in Afghanistan, a major step in the militant group’s efforts to engage with the world nearly four years after it seized power and declared victory in its war against the United States.

Afghanistan’s Foreign Ministry said on X that Russia’s ambassador to Afghanistan, Dmitry Zhirnov, had “officially conveyed his government’s decision to recognize the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan” during a meeting in Kabul with the country’s foreign minister, Amir Khan Muttaqi.

The Russian Foreign Ministry said Moscow’s official recognition of the government in Afghanistan would “give impetus to the development of productive bilateral cooperation between our countries in various fields,” including in trade and energy.

Russia’s move is a significant victory for the Taliban, whose draconian restrictions on women, including bans on education beyond the sixth grade and on medical training, have made Afghanistan a pariah state in much of the world.

Both Western and Islamic nations condemned the Taliban and kept a distance from them, despite widespread outreach efforts by the group. The Taliban moved to eradicate opium production and took other steps in a bid to present a more moderate face, but most foreign partners remained unmoved.

That began to change last year, however, as a growing recognition set in that the Taliban government was not going anywhere and that no amount of international pressure would force it to back down on women’s rights.