An inspection of the train Dushanbe - Moscow by Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin and the chief sanitary doctor of Russia Gennady Onishchenko has resulted in a radical proposal to temporarily ban the operation of passenger trains travelling from Tajikistan to Russia. However, later the top officials backed down. Obviously, Tajikistan pressed at the highest level.
The inspection of the Dushanbe-Moscow train was conducted over the weekend. After the inspection, Onishchenko said that "within our authority and competence, we will prohibit the operation of this train on the territory of the Russian Federation. This means the cessation of movement." Rogozin was no less formidable. "This train, in principle, should not be allowed into the territory of Russia. We feel that this is a serious threat to the health of the nation. Sanitary technical condition of the train ... just does not hold water, it is depressing. Such vehicles cannot be allowed into decent countries," said the Deputy Prime Minister.
Earlier, he also said that a hard barrier should be placed against those who "bring into our country the weapon of heroin, as well as those who are trying to export to our country extremist ideology that undermines the foundations of our constitutional order."
In addition, the "border must be firmly slammed for all illegal immigrants who trample the rules and laws that we have established in our country in terms of immigration legislation," said the Deputy Prime Minister. "Russia is subjected to the invasion of heroin gangs, it is an outright war, and on such a scale against our country that the volume of incoming heroin can be compared with weapons of mass destruction," said Rogozin.
After the inspection Rogozin and deputy head of the FSB border guard Vladimir Mochalov held a visiting session of the State Border Commission at the station Aksayskaya on the border with Tajikistan. Mochalov joined in the criticism of the Tajiks. "[It is proposed] that the Ministry of Transport of Russia together with Russian Railways submit to the Council for Rail Transport of the CIS countries a document aimed at suspending the rail service with the Republic of Tajikistan in the existing form to address the identified deficiencies," said Mochalov. In his view, not only passenger trains do not meet sanitary standards, but they are also regularly used for drug trafficking, and national passports of citizens of Tajikistan are not adequately protected and cannot be read by Russian automatic monitoring systems.
The Tajik side was surprised by such an attack. Usman Kalantarov, the first deputy head of the State Unitary Enterprise "Tajik Railways," called the suspension of rail service with the Russian Federation an "overly drastic measure." According to him, "all deficiencies can be addressed in collaboration with Russian colleagues, and there is no need to resort to such drastic measures," said Kalantarov to the Russian BBC service. "Perhaps there are some shortcomings in the work of the Tajik Railway. But the timing of Russia's reaction is surprising, said Onishchenko's Tajik counterpart Azam Mirzoev. "All these trains have been operating for decades, under the same conditions, but before no one spoke of this, everyone was silent."
Mirzoev's surprise at the timing of the reaction and its irrationality is understandable. Chairman of the All-Russian Public Movement "Tajik migrant workers" Karomat Sharipov believes that Moscow began the story with trains and foreign passports not for the sake of the fight against drugs, but in order to put pressure on the excessively independent Tajik president. "This is a pre-planned mechanism. The election campaign in Tajikistan is about to start. They were friends with Rahmon for 20 years, now they do not like each other. Ordinary people who were waiting for the snow to melt to come to Russia for a few months and make money to feed their families for a year will suffer," Sharipov was quoted by Expert newspaper.
On Tuesday, as soon as numerous responses appeared in the press, the warlike intensity of the Russian officials has disappeared. "Such cooperation with Tajikistan as a partner for Russia in the CIS and Collective Security Treaty Organization should be considered in the spirit of partnership, but with full respect of the Russian legislation," said the Deputy Prime Minister. The FSB did not honor its previous statement either. "The Border Guard Service of the FSB Russia was not the initiator of the proposals regarding the temporary suspension of rail traffic with the Republic of Tajikistan and the limitations of entry of passenger trains that do not meet sanitary requirements, as it is outside its competence," stated the organization's press release. Who was the initiator? This was not reported in the press release.
It is obvious that the Tajik authorities at the highest level asked the Kremlin to put brakes on Rogozin's activity who threatened with the introduction of the visa regime in 2013. But the warning was given to Tajikistan, it is obvious and is associated with drug trafficking. "I think it's a problem of drugs imported by these trains. This is why we were so tough. Clearly, the trains will continue operating, but the Tajiks will be put under very strict conditions. So that not only we [control it] here, but they [control it] there at the exit point. We have to control who enters and who is bringing what," Vladimir Zharikhin, deputy director of the Institute of CIS countries, told Pravda.Ru.
Tajikistan has a visa-free regime with Russia under the framework of the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). According to the Federal Migration Service (FMS) of Russia, over 1 million Tajiks work in the country, and last year they sent home about 3.6 billion dollars, according to the UN. Given the illegal nature of migration and constant circulation of labor, these numbers may be much higher. Perhaps such "intimidation" acts like those proposed by Rogozin and Onishchenko are not necessary, but the issue of entry visas for the citizens from countries outside the Customs Union should be solved before the time suggested by Putin - 2015. Russia should not be in a hurry to accept Tajikistan into the Customs Union. The agreement with this country should not be on the control of trains, but the complete control and closure of the border with Afghanistan, as it was in Soviet times, with the participation of Russian border guards.
Lyuba Lulko
Pravda.Ru