New York Times, 25 years ago today:
President Vladimir V. Putin tonight offered the United States broad support for antiterrorist operations in Afghanistan, including opening Russian airspace to relief missions, taking part in some search-and-rescue operations, and arming anti-Taliban forces inside Afghanistan.
Combined with a Russian effort over the weekend to rally Central Asian countries to the American side, the announcement provided crucial support to the international coalition that the White House seeks to build in the wake of this month’s terrorist attacks.
It also appeared, after long deliberation and some doubt, to cast Russia’s lot firmly in the Western antiterrorism camp. In doing so, Mr. Putin rejected arguments in some military and political circles that the Kremlin was not only inviting the United States into its strategic backyard, but flirting with another war with Islamic militants.
In his brief speech on national television, Mr. Putin said Russia would provide the ”active international cooperation” of its intelligence services and supply ”weapons and military equipment” to the coalition of forces aligned against the radical Islamic Taliban government in Afghanistan.
The offer of support appeared to amount to the most decisive alignment of Russia’s military and intelligence resources with a campaign led by the United States since the end of the cold war. One chief motive seemed clear: the defeat of Islamic militance in Central Asia, on Russia’s southern doorstep.
Russia also gifted the masive Tear Drop memorial to the US in memory of the victims of 9/11. Jersey City rejected it, the city of Bayonne dumped it in a container park and later covered up the name of Vladimir Putin since doing so would stop the invasion of Ukraine:
In response to the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the city of Bayonne had Vladimir Putin’s name covered on the two plaques in the park
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/To_the_Struggle_Against_World_Terrorism