With the help of Technorati and Google Blog Search I have looked through the Tajik blogosphere and found out that most of the attention last week was paid to the visit of Ahmadinejad to Tajikistan. It is interesting how Tajikistan can maneuver between the two confronting sides, Iran and US. Rumsfeld visited Tajikistan right before the visit of Ahmadinejad and obviously he talked to Rahmonov not only about Tajik-US relations but also about the nuclear program of Iran and the visit of Ahmadinejad. The visit of Rumsfeld can be counted as a small hint to Tajikistan that it is undesirable to make very close relations with Iran.

Not-a-pundit reports that ‘U.S. Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld expressed hope for greater cooperation with Tajikistan in a letter to the country’s people. This letter was released a week later after his visit to Tajikistan. The United States recognizes the importance of the countries in Central Asia and looks forward to increasing our cooperation in many areas in the years to come. You can count on the friendship and goodwill of the American people.”- said Rumsfeld in his letter.

And it seems that Tajikistan is more likely to cooperate with Iran than with US, though it is healthier to be closer to the later one. In this case common cultural and historical heritage is much stronger. Tajikistan has signed several agreements with Iran in social, cultural and economic spheres, and it is hoping to have closer relations with this country. ‘The leaders pledged to strengthen cooperation in the fight against drug trafficking, the construction of transportation facilities, and coordination on important international and regional issues.’

The New Metro Woman is commenting on the visit of Ahmadinejad to Tajikistan. She posted her article under the title “Pan-Persian/Pan-Turkish Conspiracy Theories”. She reports that the ethnic Azerbaijanis are upset with Ahmadinejad that he is investing millions of dollars in another country while people inside the country are starving. She says that one of the theories is that it is a pan-Persianism which makes him to act like that. However she does not believe in that theory and believes that Ahmadinejad’s true enemy is the West, mainly Israel and it was the true reason for him to visit Tajikistan. To support her statement she provides some quotes from Iran Daily.

Registan.net reports on corruption in the post-Soviet countries. There is a small review of the report which was released by the World Bank, which says that ‘corruption has declined since 2000 in the transitional countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union. The findings for Armenia, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan,which did not differ much between 2002 and 2005, indicate that firms in those countries do not view corruption as a problem to the same extent as elsewhere in the CIS.’

Candide observes a link between the literacy and knowing Russian language in Tajikistan. She reports that more and more people in Tajikistan are losing the ability to speak Russian, which makes a lot of problems for people who come to Tajikistan and those Tajiks who go outside the country, especially to Russia. And probably it influences on the rate of literacy. She is also talking about everyday use of Russian by Tajiks.

Recently there was an earthquake in Tajikistan which was the reason of 3 persons dead,19 injured and thousands of homeless. This one of the terrible disasters which were this year in Tajikistan.