Tolo News: Tajik President Emomali Rahmon during a meeting of the security council of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) held via videoconference on Monday said Tajikistan will establish a security belt along its border with Afghanistan to deter insurgents’ threats emanating from Afghan soil. He said that according to Tajikistan’s special services estimates, over
By Bruce Pannier Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty November 18, 2021 When the Taliban seized control of most of Afghanistan in mid-August, one of the inevitable ripple effects was going to be a crackdown on suspect Islamic groups in the Central Asian states north of Afghanistan. Uzbekistan has emerged as the Central Asian country most actively engaging with the
By Mansur Mirovalev Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty November 4, 2021 TASHKENT — Sergei grew up in Namangan, the eastern Uzbek city where Islamic traditions persisted despite decades of atheist Soviet rule. As a young communist in high school in the 1980s, Sergei was ordered to a nearby bazaar to forcibly remove burqas — known locally as
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty October 20, 2021 Russia is hosting a high-level Taliban delegation for talks attended by officials from China, Pakistan, and eight other countries, as Moscow seeks to assert its influence on Central Asia amid worries about instability or violence spilling from Afghanistan into the region. The October 20 conference in Moscow is
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty October 15, 2021 Russian President Vladimir Putin on October 15 said the Islamic State (IS) militant group has thousands of fighters in northern Afghanistan, as Moscow prepares to host international talks next week on the situation in the country. “According to our intelligence, the number of (IS) members alone in northern
Michael Hughes AOPNEWS October 13, 2021 Several Central Asia states have evidence the United States is playing a “destructive” role in the region in the wake of the U.S. troop exit from Afghanistan, Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR) Director Sergei Naryshkin said on Wednesday at a virtual meeting with counterparts from the Commonwealth of Independent
By RFE/RL’s Tajik Service September 25, 2021 Officials in Dushanbe say they’ve received reports that Tajik militants who fought alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan are now making plans to cross the border into Tajikistan. An official at Tajikistan’s Border Service, a branch of the State National Security Committee, confirmed to RFE/RL that Tajik authorities are reviewing
Bruce Pannier Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty September 23, 2021 It has been more than a month since the international community was confronted with the fact that the Taliban had seized control over almost all of Afghanistan. Some countries are still cautious or vague about their positions on the Taliban-led government. But Uzbekistan, which shares a
Bruce Pannier Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty September 13, 2021 The surprising speed with which the Taliban took control over most of Afghanistan after foreign forces began withdrawing from the country left Afghanistan’s neighbors in a difficult predicament. All of them had considered the possibility the militant group could seize power, but suddenly they needed to
Bruce Pannier Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty August 24, 2021 There has been a good deal of speculation about how the withdrawal of foreign forces from Afghanistan and the dramatic change of power there will affect Central Asia’s relations with the big powers. Some say Russia’s presence in the region will be strengthened, or perhaps China’s,