Paul Goble
Staunton, Aug. 9 – During the first six months of 2024, the Russian authorities expelled 17,000 Tajiks after accusing most of them of being extremists. The Tajikistan interior ministry interviewed some of them and concluded that not a single one of those Tajiks Russia sent back was in fact an extremist.
Tajikistan’s Deputy Interior Minister Abdurakhmon Adamshozoda made that announcement at a press conference during which he discussed Dushanbe’s own anti-extemist and anti-terrorist programs (bomdodrus.com/2024/08/08/general-alamshozoda-o-presechenii-treh-teraktov-v-tadzhikistane-areste-27-zhitelej-jazguljama-i-amnistii-1589-tadzhikskih-boevikov-video/, fergana.agency/news/134575/ and dialog.tj/news/mvd-tadzhikistana-ne-vyyavilo-ni-odnogo-ekstremista-sredi-vyslannykh-iz-rossii-sograzhdan).
Especially in the wake of the Crocus City Hall bombings, all of the executors of which were Tajiks according to Russian officials, Moscow has frequently chosen to charge other Tajiks with extremism and then deport them, sending relations between the Russian Federation and Tajikistan into a deep freeze.
Tajik officials have denounced Moscow’s wholesale description of Tajik migrant workers as extremists before, but Adamshozoda’s report reflects not only that but also the longstanding fears of Dushanbe that in fact, migrant workers may be a breeding ground for terrorism (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2016/01/80-percent-of-tajiks-fighting-for-isis.html).
The deputy minister’s comments suggest that Dushanbe’s fears in that regard have receded, especially as Moscow has shown its willingness to label all and sundry extremists without sufficient evidence, and that Tajikistan is now quite prepared to call out the Russian authorities on that point.
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