MOSCOW — The Kremlin expressed willingness on Wednesday to allow NATO to use an airfield in the heart of European Russia, in a city best known as Lenin’s birthplace, as a transit center for moving troops and “nonlethal” cargo into Afghanistan.

The decision, which requires formal approval by the Russian government, would provide a much-needed logistics hub at a time when overland supply routes through Pakistan have been closed off. But it would also increase American and NATO dependence on Russia amid serious foreign policy disagreements between Washington and Moscow, particularly over Syria.

Use of the airfield, on the banks of the Volga River in Ulyanovsk, stands to increase Russia’s leverage at a time when the White House is thinking about speeding up its withdrawal from Afghanistan — a move Russia opposes.

Russia’s foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, while voicing support for granting NATO access to the airfield, said Wednesday that the Kremlin opposed a swift exit of troops from Afghanistan because of concerns about security, including drug trafficking.