The Taliban was formed in 1994 and had very little to do with the Soviets. They became popular on a kind of 'tough on crime, say no to drugs' platform, because the US had invested heavily in local war lord drug barons and made a lot of money from drowning the world in the cheap heroin they provided.

If you squint a bit there's a suspicious cadence in the Taliban taking over and eradicating most of the heroin production and the US invading soon after and restarting it.

The Taliban also did messaging along the lines that it's not a good idea to use foreign investment for mining infrastructure and the like when kids are starving to death.