Translated material
No questions asked
Dmitry Medvedev presented the G8 in Tajikistan
The most striking impression of yesterday, spent in the capital of Tajikistan, was the unscheduled meeting of the President of this country, Emomali Rahmon, with the journalistic community, who had arrived to cover the quadripartite summit of the presidents of Afghanistan, Pakistan, Russia and Tajikistan. More precisely, a conversation between Mr. Rakhmon and one of the journalists.Emomali Rahmon stood in his magnificent presidential palace in front of beautiful high doors that opened into a hall with a round table and four chairs. Mr. Rakhmon stood and was clearly bored, as could be seen by his folded hands on his stomach. Reporters lined up around him in some kind of square. The president and host of the meeting - this was felt in his entire appearance - was waiting for his guests. They were late. Five minutes passed, then several more. The silence became awkward, if not painful.
The first to break down was Russian journalist and photographer from Komsomolskaya Pravda Anatoly Zhdanov. He already had experience of direct communication with Mr. Rakhmon. Last year they talked for about twenty minutes about tomatoes and their harvest. So yesterday Emomali Rahmon saw his old friend sitting on the floor in the very center of the journalist’s square. Like a polite person, he said hello and said to him: “Have you already gone to the market?” “Yes, it’s necessary,” says Anatoly, “after all, only here you can buy cheap melons.” “Of course,” the president supported the topic, “our melons were a success this year.” “When does your market close?” - Concernedly, from bottom to top, as befits a conversation with the head of state, the photojournalist decided to clarify.
The question appears to have stumped Mr. Rakhmon. He smiled and looked around, as if expecting to hear a hint from the audience. But she wasn't there. And I found the most correct answer: “It works 24 hours.” And after a pause he added: “We still need to buy peaches and apricots, prices have dropped significantly this year, by 10-15 percent.”
After these words, Emomali Rahmon smiled widely. Finally Dmitry Medvedev appeared.
The Tajik capital welcomed the Russian president yesterday with the usual summer heat and an almost complete absence of people on the streets. Only policemen and attentive young men in civilian clothes watched the buses with journalists with suspicious eyes. And this was also quite understandable, especially after the recent explosions near the Dushanbe airport and the palace of the President of Tajikistan - the two extreme points of the route along which the motorcade with guests was moving.
Some Western colleagues even allowed themselves cynical assumptions that these explosions, which, fortunately, did not cause any casualties (the Tajik authorities immediately shifted responsibility for the explosions to certain militants of foreign origin who were trained in Afghanistan), turned out to be very useful before the quadripartite summit. Indeed, the atmosphere created by these explosions is perfectly suited to expressing concern for a speedy resolution of the situation around Afghanistan.
Needless to say, it was precisely this kind of concern that permeated the summit held yesterday in Dushanbe. It did not last long, no more than an hour, but was marked by the signing of a joint statement by four presidents. They “welcomed the willingness to...”, “highlighted the concern...”, “emphasized the importance...”, “noted the need...”, “emphasized the feasibility...” and “expressed interest.”
All these expressions had to do mainly with the desire to help Afghanistan. This looked more succinct in the brief statements made by the presidents of Tajikistan and Russia. Emomali Rahmon said that the Afghan-Pakistani-Russian-Tajik meeting “organically fits” into the context of the desire to involve neighboring countries in resolving the Afghan problem, revealed at the recent G8 meeting in L’Aquila, Italy. And Dmitry Medvedev, the only participant in that meeting, confirmed by his very presence the correctness of his colleague’s conclusion. He seemed to speak on behalf of the G8 summit, addressing his colleagues who were not lucky enough to be there: “the world community is allocating huge funds for these purposes, and Russia is ready to make whatever contribution it can to these efforts.”
Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who looked somewhat unusual yesterday without his usual chapan (robe) draped over his shoulders, modestly thanked for the invitation to participate in this important summit. Then his Pakistani colleague Ali Zardari added: “All of us, the whole world, must help the peoples of this region in any way possible.” And then the President of Tajikistan, for some reason calling the event a press conference, declared it closed. Apparently, he remembered that he did answer one question about the closing time of the market.
And only after all this, the program of a bilateral visit to Tajikistan by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev began. A meeting in a narrow group, a meeting in a wide group - everything is as it should be. Only now there was no provision for any communication with the press. Such a decision seems very prudent. After all, if you talk, even briefly, about the problems of today’s relations between Moscow and Dushanbe, it may seem that we are talking almost about hostile states, and not about the closest allies in the CSTO and EurAsEC.
They could, for example, ask the President of Tajikistan about the reasons that prompted him, literally on the eve of the visit of his Russian colleague, to issue a decree depriving the Russian language of the status of a language of interethnic communication. Or about the reasons for his desire to change the conditions of the 201st Russian military base in Tajikistan. They could have asked Medvedev when safe conditions for foreign migrant workers will be provided in Russia and when they will stop killing Tajiks there. Perhaps someone might wonder why Tajikistan does not pay the debt, which has reached $30 million, for the electricity supplied to the Sangtuda hydroelectric station. By the way, it was the launch of this hydroelectric power station into final operation that became the reason for Medvedev’s visit to Tajikistan. Just yesterday, the corresponding intergovernmental agreement was concluded by Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Igor Sechin and First Deputy Prime Minister of Tajikistan Asadullo Gulomov.
Today, the Russian president will take part in this ceremony and, together with Rakhmon, will plant trees there near the engine room of the station. He will also inspect the optical-electronic station for tracking and recognizing space objects in Nurek (better known as the “Window” facility), built in Soviet times, and now leased by Tajikistan to Russia. Among those who will accompany the few journalists allowed to examine it will be “the head and senior officer of the Okna service for the protection of state secrets.”