The day before the official start of the SCO summit, Dushanbe served as apparently “unpromising surroundings” for Russian diplomatic outreach to the region, and caught the the attention of some western media as a result. The Financial Times went to the trouble of (rather randomly) calling the Moscow branch of the Heritage Foundation […]
With Tajikistan’s most successful Olympic team ever returning home victorious, the SCO summit is nearly here. Such a star-studded conference would be a major event in any world capital and will thus focus particularly intense attention on internationally neglected Dushanbe, especially with the summit poised as a crucial part of the volatile diplomacy surrounding […]
MercyCorps in Tajikistan had somber news on Aug. 11 about the food crisis in Tajikistan:
more than 60 percent of households are down to only one warm meal a day. An extreme winter damaged harvests and neighboring Kazakhstan has suspended wheat exports — shutting off Tajikistan’s primary supply of grain.
Vadim has written about the crisis […]
President Rahmon left China August 8th after attending the opening ceremonies in Beijing. Hopefully he got the chance to cheer on Dzakhon Kurbanov to overwhelming and surprising victory over the world boxing champion, Abbos Atoev. Rahmon did apparently find time to talk about geopolitics, according to the official Tajik presidential website:
Emomali Rahmon, and the […]
I last reported on the possibility that the two men in Kashgar crossed the Tajik border before carrying out their attack on border guards in the city. Porfiriy, at The New Dominion, has translated state news sources indicating that the attackers were local PRC citizens:
Xinhua Network, Urumqi, 5 August - Reporters have learned from […]
News is beginning to spread of an attack in Kashgar, Xinjiang province of China that resulted in the deaths of 16 Chinese Border patrol officers. Some sources are reporting that two attackers crossed over from Tajikistan, but the NYT and AFP aren’t yet making that assumption. The AP on the other hand […]
Judging by the deserted stands at the Tajikistan/Turkmenistan football match in the AFC Challenge Cup opening round, all eyes are already focused on the Beijing Olympics as the ultimate sporting and political event of the year. As with many other delegations, the Tajik Olympic team left for Beijing today. Fourteen athletes qualified:
Dilshod Nazarov […]
Dushanbe will see its name in the news more in the next month, with preparations for the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) Summit at the end of August. The SCO Council of Ministers met in Dushanbe last week primarily to prepare for the more critical Heads of State meeting schedule to take place in […]
