The picture you posted is misleading as to what Reagan meant and who he spoke of that day. Today's Taliban has twisted what he said and use it for their own propaganda against the USA. What does this picture have to do with your question about Russia?

The men Reagan spoke of that day were not today's Taliban. They were very ferocious-looking bearded men with turbans looking like they came from another century. President Reagan received them in the White House. After receiving them he spoke to the press. He pointed towards them, (I’m sure some of you will recall that moment), and said, “These are the moral equivalent of America’s founding fathers”. They were the Afghan Mujahiddin. THEY were at the time, guns in hand, battling the Evil Empire. They were the moral equivalent of our founding fathers. They were not the blood thirsty, cutthroats that the Taliban is today. Men who would seek to kill and destroy even their own people.