DUSHANBE, April 29, 2013, Asia-Plus – The Federation Council, the upper house of the Federal Assembly of Russia (the parliament of the Russian Federation), ratified an agreement with Tajikistan on April 27 extending the presence of Russian military base in Tajikistan.
According to information posted on the Federation Council’s website, Vladimir Jabarov, the deputy head of the Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, presented the document, which provides legal regulation of issues related to deployment and functioning of the Russian military base in Tajikistan.
Russia’s lower house (State Duma) of parliament ratified this agreement on April 19.
Moscow and Dushanbe clinched the agreement in October last year to extend the lease of the Russian military base in Tajikistan until at least 2042, with possible five-year extensions afterwards.
The agreement reportedly states that during its presence in Tajikistan, the Russian base will protect the interests of Russia and Tajikistan, ensure Tajikistan’s security together with Tajikistani armed forces, Russia’s own armed forces, and other troops and bodies in both countries.
To achieve these objectives, Russia will provide Tajikistan with weapons and military and special equipment in accordance with Russia’s laws on military technical cooperation with foreign countries.
The agreement regulates, in particular, the status of the Russian military base personnel, its jurisdiction and everyday work, and sets out the procedures for using the base together with Tajikistan’s armed forces.
The base was officially opened in 2004 under a previous agreement, which was signed in 1993, and hosts Russia’s largest military contingent deployed abroad.
A total of some 7,000 Russian troops are stationed at three military facilities collectively known as the 201st military base – in Dushanbe, Qurgon Teppa, some 100 kilometers from Dushanbe, and Kulob, about 200 kilometers southwest of the capital.
Meanwhile, the Tajik legislature still has not ratified the base lease extension and some experts in Dushanbe attribute the latest problems in bilateral relations between Tajikistan and Russia to that.
They believe that recent inspection by Russian officials of a Moscow-bound Tajik train was connected with the delay in ratification of the agreement on the lease for the Russian military base in Tajikistan.
We will recall that Russian officials have threatened to ban trains from Tajikistan, complaining that sleeper trains heading to Moscow from the country are unacceptably dirty and pose a health risk. The border service also expressed concerns over rampant drug smuggling.
Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, whose portfolio includes defense, ostentatiously toured a Moscow-bound Tajik train on April 14 and declared it unfit for carrying humans. Rogozin also suggested that Tajiks could be subject to new passport restrictions. Russia”s chief sanitary doctor Gennady Onishchenko told Russian media about the health “risks” of the trains. Russian border service has proposed to suspend Tajik rail service to Russia altogether.
