Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Monday that the Taliban is the "real power" in Afghanistan and the group's possible removal from Moscow's list of banned organisations reflects "objective reality", the TASS state news agency reported.

TASS reported on Monday that Russian ministries had advised President Vladimir Putin that Moscow could remove the Taliban from the list. Moscow also invited the Taliban to a top economic forum in St Petersburg next month.

(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Lucy Papachristou)