Tajikistan and Russia profess friendship, despite tensions

‘There are no serious problems between our countries,’ assures Dushanbe, and in regional organisations, Tajiks are the first to support the Russians' arguments. But in the meantime, disappointment is growing over the Russian authorities' relations with migrants who have suffered outrage and violent forms of discrimination since the Krokus City Hall bombing.

Dushanbe (AsiaNews) - Tajikistan's foreign minister, Sirodžiddin Mukhriddin, spoke on the first channel of Russian television to assure that ‘there are no serious problems between our countries, personal relations between heads of state Emomali Rakhmon and Vladimir Putin are more than friendly, one could say fraternal, and this will be the case in the future’.

The diplomat had been asked to comment on the refusal of the Tajik Football Federation to play a friendly match with the Russian national team. The intention was to hold it in November, when the Russians had already made other commitments, so it was postponed to another date, ‘but no other objections were raised by the Russian side,’ Mukhriddin pointed out.

In fact, tensions between Moscow and Dushanbe seem to be rather high in recent weeks, with several statements by senior Tajik officials expressing disappointment with the Russian authorities' relations with Tajik migrants. In particular, at the intergovernmental commission of the two countries, which met on 4 October in Tajikistan, the question was explicitly raised by Tajik Prime Minister Kokhir Rasulzoda.

Mukhriddin himself had spoken of violations of the rights of Tajik citizens at the meeting of the CIS Council of Foreign Ministers on 7 October in Moscow, without naming a particular country, but stating that migration issues ‘require a comprehensive and thorough approach, which takes into account equally the interests of the various parties involved, the host countries, the foreign citizens themselves and the local population’.

The guarantor for human rights in Tajikistan, Umed Bobozoda, who has often been criticised for his lack of reaction to problems raised by the population, wrote a letter to his Russian counterpart Tatiana Moskalkova on 10 October to express his concerns about the lack of respect for the rights of Tajik migrants in Russia. He emphasised the behaviour of members of the security forces in Russia, who in his opinion ‘take illegal and unacceptable measures’ against labour migrants, outraging them in various ways and even using violent methods.

Despite everything, Tajikistan and Russia reiterate at every opportunity that they consider themselves ‘key strategic partners’. In various regional organisations, Tajiks are the first to support the Russian side, and the largest and most important Russian military base outside their borders is located in Tajikistan.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of Tajik citizens go to seek their fortune in Russia, but in the past year the number of arrests and unfounded verifications of their conditions in Moscow has increased considerably, especially after the March attack on Krokus City Hall, where a number of Tajiks, who were considered the only perpetrators of the terrorist act, were arrested and charged as terrorists. Following this incident, blockades of thousands of Tajik citizens began at Russian airports or borders, and many were denied entry to the territory of the Russian Federation from anywhere, with many being forcibly repatriated.