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Czech Authorities Suspend Investigation of 2014 Explosions; One Suspect Allegedly Posed as a Tajik Citizen

The Czech Republic has suspended an investigation of ammunition depot explosions in 2014 that it blames on Russian military intelligence, including an agent who allegedly used a Tajik passport during the operation. Two Czech citizens died in the first of two explosions at warehouses in the village of Vrbětice, an alleged act of sabotage that led to years of unexploded ordnance cleanup, an international investigation and Russian denials of involvement, and a tit-for-tat expulsion of Russian and Czech diplomats from each other’s countries. Tajikistan was pulled into the case in 2021 when Czech investigators said they were looking for two suspects who used Russian passports, and then used different identities under Tajik and Moldovan passports. At the time, Tajikistan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs said it had not issued a passport to a person matching the reported name and birthday of the suspect. Reports said the suspects had posed as potential arms buyers from the National Guard of Tajikistan, though an analysis by a group of media organizations said it was unclear whether that particular ruse enabled them to get onto the ammunition storage sites. Czech law enforcement halted the probe into the Vrbětice blasts because the suspects are in Russia, which is not cooperating, said Col. Jiří Mazánek, head of the organized crime division of the police. He said in a statement on Monday that all other avenues of investigation in the Czech Republic, and in countries that have cooperated with requests for help, “have been exhausted.” Therefore, Mazánek said, additional information that would allow a criminal prosecution to move forward can’t be obtained for now. Evidence indicates that the explosions were “part of a long-term diversionary operation by Russian military intelligence on the territory of the European Union and Ukraine,” the police official said, blaming members of the Russian agency GRU whose alleged aim was to prevent the delivery of weapons and ammunition to areas where the Russian Army was operating. In 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and fighting erupted in eastern Ukraine between Ukrainian forces and Russia-backed separatists, in a prelude to Russia’s invasion in 2022 and the ongoing war today. Russia denied it was responsible for the Vrbětice explosions and noted media reports that the ammunition depots were controlled not by the Czech government, but by a private company owned by a Bulgarian citizen.

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Tajik Nationals Held in Moscow Airports as Russia Tightens Border Controls

More than a thousand Tajik citizens are being held in detention facilities at Moscow airports in unsanitary conditions and without access to hot meals, Tajikistan said on Sunday, a day after the government urged its’ nationals to temporarily refrain from traveling to Russia “unless absolutely necessary.” Over the weekend, Russia disputed Tajik claims that it is targeting people from Tajikistan, saying it is intensifying anti-terrorism measures and that more rigorous checks of foreign citizens seeking entry are carried out “regardless of the nationality of the persons.” The diplomatic back-and-forth, a rare show of discord between Russia and Tajikistan, comes amid a surge in suspicion and harassment among some Russians toward Tajik citizens after gunmen attacked the Crocus City Hall on March 22, killing more than 140 people. Several Tajik suspects were among those initially detained, and Russia’s state-run agency, Tass said on Saturday that a court had ordered the arrest of a 12th suspect, a Tajik citizen living in a Moscow hostel. The Islamic State group, which claimed responsibility for the attack, has some Central Asian recruits, though their number is disputed. “The situation with Tajik citizens stuck at Moscow airports remains difficult,” and restrictive measures are being applied “exclusively” to people from Tajikistan, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan said in a statement. By late Saturday, 954 Tajik citizens, including students in Russia on scholarships provided by the Tajik government, were in temporary detention at Vnukovo International Airport in Moscow, according to the ministry. It said 322 who waited for hours were allowed into Russia, but the Russian authorities reportedly planned to add 306 people to an “expulsion list,” and 27 have already been expelled. Dozens of Tajik citizens are also being held in poor conditions at the Zhukovsky, Domodedovo and Sheremetyevo airports in Moscow, according to the ministry. Tajik diplomats and members of the diaspora in Russia are delivering meals to their detained compatriots. The embassy in Moscow has opened a 24-hour operational headquarters to help them. Tajikistan expressed its concern in a meeting last week after summoning Russian Ambassador Semyon Grigoryev to the foreign ministry in Dushanbe. On Saturday, in a notice that it described as urgent, Tajikistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs urged citizens to “temporarily refrain from traveling to Russian territory by all types of transport unless absolutely necessary.” More thorough checks by Russian law enforcement means that “at checkpoints across the state border, including at a number of airports, there are delays during passport control,” said Maria Zakharova, spokeswoman for Russia’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. “The Russian side is taking comprehensive measures to resolve the current situation as quickly as possible. We count on your understanding.” Zakharova said “no changes have been made to the list of grounds for imposing a ban on entry into the Russian Federation; there are no additional obstacles to crossing the state border by foreign citizens, provided they have all the necessary documents.” Meanwhile, citizens of Tajikistan are also experiencing problems with entry at land border crossings. More than...

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Tajikistan Denounces “Torture” of Tajik Suspects in Moscow Attack, Urges Fair Trial

Tajikistan’s foreign minister has described the beating and abuse of several Tajik suspects in the mass killing of more than 140 people at a Russian concert hall as “torture” that is at odds with the need for a thorough investigation and a fair trial. Foreign Minister, Sirojiddin Muhriddin also said that Tajik people had faced an “information campaign” of racism and xenophobia since the attack at the Crocus City Hall in Moscow on March 22. His comments were some of the strongest yet by Tajikistan’s Government, reflecting increased worry over the national image and the plight of many poor Tajik migrants in Russia who were already living in precarious conditions. Muhriddin urged the Russian authorities to conduct an investigation into the Crocus City Hall attack according to international norms, including the right to a fair trial, reported Asia-Plus, a media group in Tajikistan. He spoke at a meeting of regional foreign ministers in Minsk, Belarus. “The demonstration in the open information space of footage of the detention of suspected perpetrators of a terrorist act with the use of torture against them in the form of bodily mutilation is unacceptable,” Muhriddin said. “The price of confessions obtained in this way is well known to everyone.” Several migrant laborers from Tajikistan were among suspects charged with terrorism in the wake of the attack, and they appeared in court with visible injuries. At the time, videos and photographs circulating on social media showed the men being beaten and abused while in detention. In one video, a man in camouflage cuts off part of the ear of a suspect and forces it into his mouth. The Islamic State group claimed responsibility for the Crocus City Hall attack, which focused attention on the group’s efforts to recruit people from Central Asia into its ranks. Muhriddin alluded to widespread reports of harassment and hostility toward Tajik migrants, particularly in Russia. “As a result of an ill-conceived information campaign, a negative perception of citizens of Tajikistan and Tajiks is being formed,” the Tajik foreign minister said. As for the attack, he said: “All criminals must be punished: the organizers, the perpetrators, the accomplices, and the masterminds of this monstrous crime.” In the face of overwhelming evidence to the contrary, despite ongoing Russian attempts to pin the blame for the atrocity on Ukraine, Russia has pressed ahead with new laws targeting migrants. Focusing on Russia’s “unreliable narrative” regarding the attack, Noah Tucker, a Senior Research Consultant at the Oxus Society and Program Associate of the Central Asia Program at George Washington University stated that the “last major attack inside Russia was the 2017 metro bombing. [In a] strategy of authoritarian cooperation… that was also blamed on Central Asian migrants, and the security services arrested two Uzbek brothers and sent them to jail as the direct orchestrators of the attack – only the facts never added up… One of the brothers, who was charged as being the mastermind, was lying in a hospital in Osh during the attack, and...

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Tajik Islamic State Member Ilhomi Sayrahmanzoda Captured in Italy

Italian police have arrested a Tajik member of the Islamic State (IS) terrorist group, according to a report by the ANSA news agency. According to police in Rome, 32-year-old Ilhomi Sayrahmanzoda was arrested at the city's Leonardo da Vinci–Fiumicino Airport after arriving on a flight from the Dutch city of Eindhoven. He had been wanted internationally since 2014 for fighting for IS in the war in Syria. Italian police established that Sayrahmanzoda was still an active member of IS, and had been using various aliases, connected with passports of Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine, to hide from law enforcement agencies. €2,000 in cash was confiscated from him, as well as a mobile phone, with which investigators are planning to identify whether Sayrahmanzoda had any connections in Italy. “His arrival in Rome raises troubling questions: did he have anything planned here? Has he hired anyone before? Were they waiting for him? His citizenship was a key factor in his arrest on March 22 amid heightened tensions surrounding the Crocus City Hall bombing. However, so far, there are no elements that indicate his involvement in this movement,” the ANSA report said. Italy is currently considering Tajikistan's request to extradite Sayrahmanzoda. Italian interior minister Matteo Piantedosi said the arrest was “a very important result, the result of an effective preventive action against the threat of terrorism.”

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Central Asia Counts the Cost of Drug Trafficking

Speaking at the 67th session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in March, Zafar Samad - director of the Narcotics Control Agency under the President of Tajikistan - admitted that vast quantities of drugs are being smuggled to Europe and Russia through Tajikistan’s “northern route.” In other Central Asian nations, increased efforts are being made to curtail the problem. Kazakhstan, for example, is strengthening its legal systems and policies to effectively counter the laundering of proceeds from drug trafficking in cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The Kazakh government also recently approved a Comprehensive Plan to Combat Drug Addiction and Trafficking. Given its long and porous border with Afghanistan, however, the problem in Tajikistan remains acute. “The increase in the volume of drug seizures in Tajikistan indicates that there are large stocks of drugs in the northern provinces of Afghanistan intended for shipment along the northern route,” Samad stated. Smugglers are “assessing the situation and exploring the possibilities of transporting drugs into Tajikistan, taking into account the measures taken by the Tajik Government to strengthen the Tajik-Afghan border by creating new border facilities.” This year will see the adoption of a CSTO program aimed at fortifying the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. However, the “northern route” - sometimes called the “Heroin Highway” - has a long and checkered history, which has not always led to interstate cooperation. The village of Karakul, GBAO; photo: TCA The Pamir Highway route was established in the 1990s, opening up new avenues for suppliers following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Beginning in the Kyrgyz second city of Osh, the highway - the second highest international road in the world - traverses the length of Tajikistan and down through the south of Uzbekistan before terminating in Afghanistan. An estimated 15 tons of opium and 80 tons of heroin are trafficked through Tajikistan each year, the majority passing through the poverty-stricken, self-governing Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) along a desolate mountainous route known locally as Bam-i-Dunya - the Roof of the World. Said by locals to be older than Rome, Osh is a dusty spread of Soviet-era buildings adorned with satellite dishes and murals of MIG fighter jets and Misha the Bear. Having long been dubbed one of the drug capitals of Central Asia, Kalashnikov-wielding soldiers guarded cafés after dark. An ancient Silk Road route in use for millennia, the modern Pamirsky Trakt was completed in 1937. From Osh, the red soil highway ascends to the windswept mud-brick hamlet of Sary Tash, a major stopover on the smuggling route where the roads to Kashgar in China and the border with Tajikistan converge. Despite covering 45% of its landmass, the self-governing Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) is home to just 3% of the population of Tajikistan. The only Central Asian country to have descended into civil war following the collapse of the USSR, the Pamiris chose the losing side, with the five-year-long conflict leaving approximately 100,000 dead and 1.2 million displaced. The...

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Japan-Funded Project Helps Tajikistan Manage Its Border With Afghanistan

Japan has long been a "steadfast supporter of Tajikistan, contributing tens of millions of dollars to the country’s development through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP)." The Japanese government, through its Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), is also funding the “Border Management Project” – an initiative to support the Tajik Government in controlling its national border with Afghanistan, UNDP Tajikistan reports. The project aims to both secure the length of the Tajik-Afghan border and facilitate cross-border trade. It was initially launched in 2015, and will run until 2025. Since its launch the parties have constructed a new border checkpoint at Langar, and modernized the old checkpoints at Khumrogi and Shogun. Toshihiro Aiki, Japan’s ambassador to Tajikistan, recently commented: “We have had favorable relationships with the government of Tajikistan since its first steps of independence. Japan supports Tajikistan in many ways, considering strategic aspects, especially in light of the changed political landscape involving the whole Eurasian continent. There are some challenges that not only Tajikistan but most of the countries face.” Given the problem of drug trafficking at the Tajik-Afghan border, the initiative is also supporting Tajikistan in disrupting illicit activities, protecting border communities from the harmful effects of the drug trade.