Afghan army soldiers take part in a military operation against Taliban militants in Kunduz Province, Afghanistan, Dec. 25, 2019. Afghan government forces stormed a Taliban hideout in Khan Abad district of the northern Kunduz province on Thursday, killing five insurgents and wounding three others, a local police commander Sarfaraz Khan said. (Photo by Ajmal Kakar/Xinhua)

 The United States is lying about Russia's alleged links to the Taliban, the deputy head of the press department at the Russian Foreign Ministry, Alexey Zaitsev, said Thursday, regarding the comments of Robert C. O'Brien, a US national security adviser to the president.

"We have gotten used to the United States' groundless made-up stories. Russia has been accused of all manner of sins ... This time, Russian special services are accused of collusion with the Taliban who are allegedly supposed to attack US troops in Afghanistan. This is just another lie that does not merit a comment", Zaitsev told a briefing.

The diplomat remarked that such statements were hurting the Russian-US interaction on Afghanistan.

The original NYT article did not show any proof. Russian presidential spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, strongly refuted the allegations in it. At the same time, Moscow welcomes the US plans to decrease its military presence in Afghanistan to 4,000 troops, Zaitsev said.

"We consider [US President Donald] Trump's statement on this proof of his commitment to a campaign promise on withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan and the White House's firm resolve on its commitments under a peace deal with the Taliban", the diplomat said.

In this week's article for the Washington Post, O'Brien said that Russia would "pay a price" if its alleged collusion with the Taliban was proven. O'Brien was referring to an article in the New York Times, which claimed, citing an anonymous source, that Russia offered remuneration to the Taliban for attacking US soldiers.