(Last Updated On: July 20, 2021) Russian tanks deployed near the Afghan-Tajik border on Tuesday ahead of military exercises next month and Moscow announced more drills in neighboring Uzbekistan as regional tensions over the Taliban’s territorial gains in Afghanistan remained high. Taliban fighters have made major advances as U.S. forces pull out after 20 years of war, a security headache for Moscow which fears refugees may be pushed into its Central Asian backyard and its southern defensive flank destabilized. Tank crews from Russia’s military base in Tajikistan, its largest on foreign soil, completed a 200 km (124-mile) journey to a military range near the Afghan border, the TASS news agency cited Russia’s Central Military District as saying in a statement on Tuesday.