Tajik border service refutes report about its complaints about Russian advisers

DUSHANBE, December 9, 2011, Asia-Plus – The Main Border Guard Directorate of the Sate Committee for national Security (SCNS) has denied report released by some Russian media outlets that Sherali Mirzoyev, commander of Tajikistan’s border guard forces, allegedly expressed dissatisfaction with activities of Russian border-guard advisers deployed in Tajikistan as baseless.

Some Russian media outlets report that the head of Tajik border-guard forces, Sherali Mirzoyev, allegedly stated that during a meeting with border officers in Khorog, Gorno Badakhshan.

According to Russian media outlets, Tajik general has allegedly noted that Russian border-guard advisers do not fulfill their direct duties but are engaged in collection of secret information.

In a statement released on December 9, Tajik border service called it a provocation that does not correspondent to the facts.

“Firstly, there was no any meeting in regional border guard department in Khorog, in which commander of the board-guard forces delivered a statement,” said the statement.  “Secondly, an agreement on border guard cooperation and a number of interagency protocols determining principles and new format of relations on the border-guard issues were signed between Tajikistan and Russia in Dushanbe last September during Russian president’s visit to Tajikistan.  Besides, under the new agreement, the body of advisers within the group of the border-guard cooperation of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) in Tajikistan was abolished.  At present, Russian border officers are serving in Tajikistan as consultants and teachers at the Higher Border Guard Service School in Dushanbe without trip to the border lines.”

We will recall that Tajik and Russian border guards have discussed a new draft agreement on the border-control cooperation issues this year.

When Russian border guards left Tajikistan in 2005 the two sides signed a five-year cooperation agreement that has expired this year.

Russian border guards controlled the Tajik-Afghan border for more than 100 years before handing over responsibility to their Tajik colleagues in 2005.  But Russian boarder-guard advisers continue to be deployed in Tajikistan.

Negotiations that were conducted between Tajik and Russian border services this year focused on the status and tasks of those Russian border-guard advisers and the final agreement on the border-control cooperation was singed by Tajik President Emomali Rahmon and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in Dushanbe on September 2, 2011.