Field Reports
FIRST OFFICIAL VISIT OF TAJIK PRESIDENT TO RUSSIA YIELDS LITTLE PROGRESS
By Bek Boriev (11/12/2009 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Tajikistan’s president Emomali Rakhmon has completed an official visit to Moscow, where he met with the Russian president Dmitry Medvedev. The meeting between the two heads of state was the first official rendezvous of this kind. Local media anticipated complicated negotiations since the Tajik government expressed a straightforward intention of charging Russia for the 201st military base in Tajikistan – local newspapers indicated the sum of US$ 300 million per year for the presence of Russian troops.
KYRGYZ PRESIDENT ENTRUSTS THE COUNTRY’S ECONOMY TO HIS SON
By Joldosh Osmonov (11/12/2009 issue of the CACI Analyst)
On October 29, President Kurmanbek Bakiev signed a decree on the appointment of his youngest son, 32-year old Maxim Bakiev, as head of the Central Agency on Development, Investments and Innovations (CADII). The agency was established under the President’s Institute which has replaced the former Presidential Administration as a result of the recent wide-ranging reform of state institutions.
According to the law on the agency’s creation, CADII will be responsible for “structural reorganization of the country’s economy, support for business, attracting foreign investment, and most importantly, preparation of the country’s budget and national economic programs”.
TAJIK AUTHORITIES PRESS AHEAD WITH CONTROVERSIAL DAM PROJECT
By Alexander Sodiqov (11/12/2009 issue of the CACI Analyst)
On October 28, Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon confirmed Tajikistan’s resolve to complete the massive Rogun hydroelectric power station (HEPS), suggesting that the construction of the power plant was “not only a matter of survival [for Tajikistan] but also one of ensuring the country’s energy independence.” Addressing a gathering at the power plant’s construction site, the Tajik leader said nearly US$ 150 million was earmarked for the Rogun project in the country’s 2010 state budget, which is a 22 percent increase from the US$ 120 million during this year. President Rakhmon also suggested that the partial blocking of the Vakhsh River to fill up the Rogun reservoir will begin early next year, and the first unit of the power station will be commissioned in three to four years.
THE RESULTS OF TAJIKISTAN-RUSSIA NEGOTIATIONS
By Suhrob Majidov (11/12/2009 issue of the CACI Analyst)
During the state visit to Moscow in the end of October, Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon was planning to solve some tense issues in the relationship between Dushanbe and Moscow and turn these to Tajikistan’s advantage. The major issues Rahmon aimed to address include the agreements on the continued deployment of the Russian military base in Tajikistan and the fulfillment of a promise to invest US$2 billion in the construction of the Rogun hydroelectric power station, which the Russian Government made several years ago. None of the issues addressed by the Tajik President attained expected results, however experts claim that as a result of the visit, the relationship between Tajikistan and Russia will normalize temporarily.
Visit also
Staff Publications
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Greater Central Asia as A Component of U.S. Global Strategy, October 2024.
Analysis Laura Linderman, "Rising Stakes in Tbilisi as Elections Approach," Civil Georgia, September 7, 2024.
Analysis Mamuka Tsereteli, "U.S. Black Sea Strategy: The Georgian Connection", CEPA, February 9, 2024.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, ed., Türkiye's Return to Central Asia and the Caucasus, July 2024.
Book Svante E. Cornell, ed., "The Changing Geopolitics of Central Asia and the Caucasus" AFPC Press/Armin LEar, 2023.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell and S. Frederick Starr, Stepping up to the “Agency Challenge”: Central Asian Diplomacy in a Time of Troubles, July 2023.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.