DUSHANBE, December 16, 2015, Asia-Plus – Russia has concluded relocation of the 149th motor rifle regiment of the Russian military base in Tajikistan from Kulob to Dushanbe.
The press center of Russia”s Central Military District says relocation of the 149th motor rifle regiment was endorsed by the Ministry of Defense of Tajikistan and it was a planned act. The decision has reportedly been made to raise fighting capacity and develop military potential of the unit.
Relocation has not affected the number of troops and tasks of the unit, the Central Military District press center noted. Military facility in Kulob has been handed over to Tajikistan’s authorities.
Servicemen reportedly completed a 250-kilometer march from Kulob to Dushanbe on their staff vehicles.
As it had been reported earlier, a group of residents of the city of Kulob working as civilian support staff at the Russian military base’s unit in their city applied to
Asia-Plus
on November 18 noting that that they have obtained an official order from Russian military command about withdrawal of Russian troops from their city.
The notification reads, “We inform you that in connection with the Central Military District directive, this military unit is being relocated as of October 15, 2015. The relocation will be completed within two months since you received this notification.”
The Russian military base deployed in Tajikistan is Russia”s largest non-naval military facility outside the country. It was officially opened in Tajikistan 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 now stationed at two military facilities collectively known as the 201st military base – in Dushanbe and Qurghon Teppa, some 100 kilometers from Dushanbe.
Russian officials have announced plans to increase the number of troops stationed in Tajikistan to 9,000 over the next five years and provide more military equipment through 2020.
Meanwhile, local experts say the decision to withdraw Russian servicemen from the city of Kulob causes very different suggestions.
According to some of them, the military unit that was deployed in Kulob was a reserve force to support border guards patrolling the Hamadoni stretch of the Tajik-Afghan border and the military unit deployed in Qurghon Teppa is a reserve force to support border guards patrolling the Panj stretch of the border. From Kulob to the Afghan border is only 42 kilometers, while from Dushanbe to the Afghan border is about 300 kilometers and from Qurghon Teppa is about 200 kilometers.
We will recall that the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Secretary-General Nikolai Bordyuzha said in March that the group”s rapid reaction forces could reach the Tajikistan-Afghanistan border in three days if fighting broke out there.
Meanwhile, Major-General Yevgeniy Tubol, the commander of the Russian military base in Tajikistan, told representatives of the Working Group on Afghanistan under the CSTO Foreign Ministers’ Council on April 2 that the base’s forces could be at the Tajik-Afghan border within a day if a conflict broke there.
