Tajikistan asks Russia for debt write-off in troop talks

MOSCOW (AFP) Aug 08, 2003
Tajikistan wants Russia to write off millions of dollars of its debt in return for allowing Moscow to keep an army division in the Central Asian country, which borders Afghanistan and is a major conduit for drug smugglers, ITAR-TASS reported Friday.

Impoverished Tajikistan is currently engaged in tense negotiations with Moscow on the fate of Russia's 201st division, which is part of some 19,000 troops that Russia keeps in the former Soviet republic.

Tajikistan has asked Russia to write off its 300-million-dollar (265-million-euro) debt in return for allowing the division to remain.

It also wants to win a right to control the 201st in case of an emergency and has yet to agree to give Russian military complexes "base" status, thus denying them various benefits.

Tajikistan, the poorest of the former Soviet republics, was devastated by a brutal 1992-97 civil war and remains on edge because of volatility in neighboring Afghanistan.

Both Tajikistan and Russia have ratified a 1999 accord on the Russian military presence in the country.

Tajikistan's southern border with Afghanistan is guarded by some 11,000 Russian troops, and Russia has around 8,000 other troops based in the republic.

WAR.WIRE