INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS

Rashid ABDULLO

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Rashid Abdullo, Independent political scientist (Dushanbe, Tajikistan)

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In 2006, the republic’s leadership, free from domestic political emergencies for the first time in the years of the country’s independence, had the opportunity to concentrate on creating foreign political conditions conducive to the country’s advanced economic development. Formation of the post-Soviet national Tajik state based on the institution of strong presidential power was completed the same year. The final touch to this 15-year-long process was the preparations for and holding of another presidential election.

No one in the republic or beyond it had the slightest doubt that Emomali Rakhmonov would be the main contender for this post. But the president and his team tried to promote his image among the electorate as a peacekeeping leader and as a leader capable of achieving the best results in implementing the republic’s strategically important economic projects. They accomplished this task by primarily concentrating their efforts on creating conditions conducive to the implementation of major projects, on which agreements had already been reached with foreign investors. They were (and will remain for the near future) projects in the energy and transport-communication spheres, as well as measures aimed at dealing with the still spontaneously developing mass labor migration. The political tasks of ensuring the victory of the current head of state and the successful implementation of the development projects became so intertwined that they were essentially resolved together.

The successful solution of both tasks depended directly on the further enhancement of relations primarily with Russia, the…………..

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