Tajikistan President Emomali Rahmon, speaking at a meeting with journalists on December 8, criticized the leadership of neighboring Uzbekistan. In addition, as Vremya Novostei reports , he made claims to two cities that are part of Uzbekistan: Samarkand and Bukhara.

In his speech, the president noted that in the past he had treated his colleague from Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, well, but subsequently changed his mind. “This man fights against everything Tajik, does not want the development of our country, closes roads, turns off our electricity in the cold winter,” Rakhmon said.

The head of the republic also announced the oppression of Tajiks in Uzbekistan. He told the following story: “Once we were in Samarkand, I asked one person: 'What is your nationality?' ". Rakhmon added that he argued a lot with Karimov and even “fought” with him several times, so they had to be separated. “And I told him: 'We will take Samarkand and Bukhara anyway,'” the president said.

Samarkand and Bukhara were included in the Uzbek SSR in the 1920s. Tajiks, as the publication notes, consider these cities to be their cultural and historical heritage. In the past, Tajiks in particular made up a significant part of the sedentary population of the Khanate of Bukhara.

The newspaper also reports that, speaking about relations with Uzbekistan, Rakhmon asked journalists that “everything heard remains in this office.”

Let us recall that between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan there are disagreements regarding the use of water resources in the region, as well as on the issue of electricity supplies. In the winter of 2008, when Tajikistan was experiencing an energy crisis, Uzbekistan stopped the transit of electricity to its neighbor for several months (we are talking about electricity from Turkmenistan destined for Tajikistan). In Tashkent this was explained by an accident at the substation, while in Dushanbe they expressed the opinion that transit was stopped for political reasons.

At the end of 2009, the energy situation for Tajikistan became more complicated due to Uzbekistan's withdrawal from the United Energy System of Central Asia. As a result, as stated by Alexey Silantyev, a representative of the state-owned company Barki Tojik (Energy of Tajikistan), his republic has actually lost the opportunity to import Turkmen electricity. “Every year, under various pretexts, the Uzbek side prevents the transit of electricity to Tajikistan, as well as from Tajikistan to other countries in the summer, when there is an excess of electricity in the country,” the Avesta agency quoted him as saying . In Uzbekistan, in turn, commenting on its withdrawal from the Unified Energy System, they stated that Tajikistan abused the capabilities of this system and illegally took away electricity.

Rakhmon promised to take Samarkand from Karimov