Recently, I wrote about the appointment of Nuriddin Saidov as the new Education Minister in Tajikistan. I wondered at the time whether there was anything underlying the move of President Rahmon's close relative Abdujabbor Rahmonov from the Ministry to Tajik State Pedagogical University. It seems I'm not the only one who's been thinking about this move, …
Continue reading Tajikistan’s government: how much longer a master of the nation?
For the last few weeks, I haven't had any interesting stories to report under my favourite 'bureaucratic madness' category. Central Asia seems to have been a pretty sensible place of late. However, I'm pleased to report that the Tajik government is back on form with a new episode of red tape craziness. As I've suggested …
Continue reading Russian pilots and Tajik workers, or How to lose friends and alienate people
The UK-based Telegraph newspaper today has a story on what will be the one of the world's biggest mosques. The start of building on the 115,000-capacity building closely follows the official launch of the world's tallest flagpole in the same country. Can you guess where? A further clue: the mosque, 70% funded by Qatar, has …
Wrapping up a deal done earlier this year, China has now formally taken over 1% of Tajikistan in the desolate eastern Tajik Pamir mountain range. A short but interesting - and ever so slightly sardonic - story on this is on the Asian Correspondent . At the time, the Tajik government claimed moral victory over their …
Continue reading It’s official – China now owns part of Tajikistan
You could provide several answers to that question, but the article I'm posting here looks at Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. No, really. Intrigued? Read the full article on the wonderful Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website for more. By the way, this is my first post in the 'bureaucratic madness' category and it …
Continue reading Where in the world would you least expect high property costs?
Hello, and welcome to my blog! All the advice I've read about starting a blog says you should focus on one area you're particularly interested in. Well, I've got a lot of quite different interests so I've chosen to focus on two areas, which do sometimes overlap: 1. Central Asia and the post-Soviet world One …
