Tajikistan wants to get out of the influence of Russia
Rahmon prudently donated to friends from the People’s Republic of China, not a few not a few, around 1120 square kilometers of Tajik territory, so that the Chinese brothers, in which case, did not forget to support Emomali Sharipovich. If we consider that the entire territory of the Republic of Tajikistan is 142 thousands of square kilometers, then a gift to Beijing, presented last year, can be considered really generous (about 0,8% of the entire territory of the country). It should be borne in mind that the Tajik leader made his territorial gift to comrade Hu Jintao right when the so-called Arab revolutions raged around the world. Apparently, Emomali Rakhmon, realizing that some people could make a similar revolution in his state, decided to enlist the support of the Celestial. And I must say, the “orange snake” never reached Dushanbe. It is unlikely that Beijing directly participated here, it was just that at that time Washington was not in touch with Rakhmon, because the fussy Afghanistan, which needs to continue making narco-dollars, transporting opiates, including through interested people in Tajikistan, was not far behind.
But now, when the American “friends of Tajikistan” may be interested in the state of affairs in this Republic, Emomali Sharipovich decided to urgently take the visor in the direction of Washington too. The current president of the Republic of Tatarstan realizes that he can hardly enlist the support of the majority of Tajik voters, at least, because Tajikistan has been one of the poorest CIS states for two decades and Rakhmon has not been able to find a way out of this situation (he if at all sought). It turns out that the Tajik leader, if he wants to win the election, has only one option - to follow the path of falsification. But this way is rather slippery, because the same Americans may not understand Rahmon’s so violent desire to get an 50% + 1 vote. Observers may well catch the Tajik CEC in counting frauds.
And that is why Emomali Sharipovich decided to demonstrate his loyalty to the American course of democratization. The other day, Rakhmon congratulated President Barack Obama on the anniversary of the independence of the United States and announced that he intends to seriously strengthen the American vector of his policy. At the same time, information appeared that official Dushanbe could bestow Washington with the Aini airfield, which some time ago was solemnly promised to Russia. But now Mr. Rakhmon apparently thought that Russia and so many gifts from him, and will always be there, but you can expect anything from American partners. That is why they need to urgently promise the airfield so that the heart of the American authorities will often be beaten with a tide of friendly emotions towards Tajikistan.
However, Tajikistan decided not to limit itself to this and presented Washington with one more gift, which consists in disputes started with Russia over the presence of a Russian military base on the territory of this Central Asian country.
High-ranking Russian servicemen claim that Tajikistan unexpectedly put forward two dozen conditions to the Russian Federation, under which the base can remain in Tajikistan. One of these conditions is rent not for 49 years, as previously discussed, but for 10 years. This is all the more surprising, because during Dmitry Medvedev’s not so long visit to Dushanbe, agreements were reached that the 201-I military base will remain in Kulyab, Kurgan-Tube and Dushanbe itself for almost half a century. But the Asian inconsistency lies in the fact that the Tajik president can afford to reach agreements so that these agreements with different countries are mutually exclusive. Apparently, at the moment when Medvedev made a visit to Tajikistan, Mr. Rakhmon had not yet thought about the upcoming presidential elections and about possible “help” in the counting of votes by the American observers.
Realizing that Washington, against the background of Rakhmon's pliability, can catch big fish in the muddy waters of Asian politics, representatives of the US Congress visited Dushanbe last week. Officially, it was about cooperation between Dushanbe and Washington during the withdrawal of the NATO contingent from Tajikistan, but unofficially, apparently, the very same gifts that Emomali Sharipovich should make to the United States to gain their loyalty were discussed.
By the way, the revision of the time conditions of the Russian base in the Republic of Tajikistan from 49 to 10 years is far from the only Tajik demarche in relation to Moscow. Official Dushanbe demanded that Russia share with the Tajik army a new military equipment, but also pay more for its presence in Tajikistan. It would seem that it was possible to settle these problems fairly quickly, but Dushanbe, moving away from the discussion, put forward more and more new requirements.
Having discerned in Rakhmon’s actions what the simple language is called a “set-up”, Moscow proposed its own version of the treaty related to finding a military base in Tajikistan. However, the Minister of Defense of the Republic of Tatarstan Sherali Khayrulloev stated that no quotation was “read” by any Russian version in Dushanbe, but instead they are preparing so-called parallel proposals.
In general, we have to admit that Asian diplomacy, which Russia has recently been pursuing Tajikistan after Uzbekistan, once again demonstrates the fact that neither Rakhmon nor Karimov are going to take care of good neighborly relations with each other or with Moscow . But both leaders are determined at all costs to bargain for themselves certain preferences, trying to sit at once on several chairs. At the same time, it seems that dear presidents forget that today in Russia more than half a million Tajiks and about 300 thousands of citizens of Uzbekistan are operating as unrecorded workers. Last year alone, Uzbek and Tajik citizens transferred about 190 billion rubles from Russia to their countries. And if Russia finally realizes that Rakhmon and Karimov decided to start a double or even triple game, that is, Moscow and its levers, in order to enable the Central Asian leaders to understand with whom it is more profitable to cooperate at this stage.
Materials used:
http://www.ng.ru/cis/2012-07-06/1_rahmon.html
http://news.tj/ru/news/bolshe-vsego-deneg-iz-rossii-perevodyat-v-uzbekistan
http://www.newsru.com/world/06jul2012/rahmon.html
Information