A feud between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan threatens to inflict serious damage to the already troubled Tajik economy, as well as cause disruptions to an important supply route used by US and NATO troops in Afghanistan.
A World Bank offer to underwrite an environmental feasibility study for the proposed Rogun hydropower project could mark a decisive moment in the Central Asian state's efforts to become an electricity exporter.
The governing People's Democratic Party of Tajikistan is cruising to victory in the country's parliamentary election with almost 72 percent of the vote, according to a preliminary tally. Western election monitors, however, expressed disappointment with the conduct of the polling, saying that fraud boosted the governing party's winning margin.
For more than a decade Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have had a rocky relationship. But now, following an announcement by Tashkent that it is withdrawing from the Central Asian electricity grid, bilateral ties may take a dangerous nosedive.
Tajik President Imomali Rahmon's administration is discouraging believers in the impoverished Central Asian nation from making the Hajj, or pilgrimage to Mecca, this year. Instead, authorities are asking that would-be pilgrims make a donation to charity.
Tajikistan's State Drug Control Agency (DCA) celebrated its 10th anniversary recently, drawing praise from President Imomali Rahmon for its success in combating narcotics trafficking. Even so, foreign officials continue to complain that large quantities of drugs continue to move across the Tajik-Afghan border and on to European markets.
The only Russian-language broadcaster operating in Tajikistan has officially faded to black. The disappearance of the Russian television channel, RTR Planeta, from the airwaves was related purely to a financial dispute, according to Tajik officials. But Russia observers are convinced that something more than money was involved in Dushanbe's decision.
Uzbek Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Azimov's recent visit to Tajikistan, made in connection with a rare session of an inter-governmental commission, raises the possibility of a thaw in relations between the two Central Asian states, Tajik experts say.
