Tajikistan
Dushanbe rewrites its 3-year forecast: more freight, more investment, less aluminiu
Tajikistan's government has revised its macroeconomic forecast for 2027 to 2029. Industrial output is now expected to reach about 132 billion somoni ($14.3 billion) in 2028 against roughly 106 billion in the previous version, freight traffic 211 million tonnes instead of 160 million, and fixed investment 44.5 billion somoni instead of 40.5 billion. The aluminium line moved the other way: the 188,000-tonne target for 2028 has been cut, and the new figure was left out of the summary that reached print.
The region's fuel backstops harden into the supply plan
Ukraine's drones stopped Lukoil's NORSI refinery on Wednesday, and Reuters counted the wider score: every big Lukoil plant in Russia now stands idle. For Central Asia's importers, the hedges assembled this summer, Chinese contracts, an Iranian request, third-country cargoes inside a Russian commitment, now read as the base case.
Five Years Ahead: one ring, four sets of numbers
The August blackout found Central Asia's power ring rebuilt in copper and broken in bookkeeping. Which one gets fixed first will decide what the next fault costs.
Dushanbe plans to 2031 and sends parliament a migration bill
Tajikistan's government approved a domestic tourism programme for 2027-2031 at Tuesday's session chaired by Emomali Rahmon, and sent two draft laws to parliament. One of them is titled "On Migration".
At the drought conference, the money moves and the rule does not
The UN desertification conference in Ulaanbaatar marked its Water Day on 25 August. The Asian Development Bank announced a target the same day: at least $2 billion by 2035 for land restoration across Asia and the Pacific. The one text at that conference that would bind anybody, a drought regime, is deadlocked with three days left.
Two Afghans die crossing the Pyanj, Tajikistan's border service says
Tajikistan's State Committee for National Security says border guards killed 2 Afghan citizens who crossed the river at Fatkhobod in the southern district of Jaikhun, ignored demands to stop and put up armed resistance. The guards recovered 17.3 kilograms of hashish, a Kalashnikov rifle and a Makarov pistol.
Rogun spends three-quarters of its annual budget by August
Emomali Rahmon inspected Rogun and heard the year's arithmetic, in a visit Avesta reported on Friday: 8.4 billion of the 11.4 billion somoni allocated for 2026 is already spent, 7 months in. His instruction, delivered on the dam, was to finish "within the established timelines" and to have the reservoir at 1,140 m by early September.
Ashgabat opens its hosting season with a Tajik signature
Serdar Berdimuhamedov received Tajik foreign minister Sirojiddin Muhriddin on Thursday, and the two foreign ministries signed a cooperation program for 2027 and 2028. The reception is advance work for an autumn in which Avaza hosts two summits.
Drones return to Nizhnekamsk, and the airports close before dawn
A massed drone attack crossed Tatarstan in the night into Thursday, densest over the Zakamsk industrial zone, 10 days after a strike on the same district killed 13 people, 9 of them Central Asian workers. Officials count injuries, no deaths. By Friday before dawn, flight restrictions reached Kazan, Samara and 5 more airports.
Dushanbe puts a number on the Iranian option: 2.55 million tons
Tajikistan has asked Iran for 2.55 million tons of crude and petroleum products, figures the Transport Ministry published from last week's Tehran talks, a request close to three times all freight now moving between the two countries.
Tajikistan's new B+ is priced against a $5.8 billion dam
S&P raised Tajikistan to B+ on 14 August, its verdict on five years in which the economy grew about 8.5% a year and reserves rose to $6.4 billion. In the same package its analysts put the remaining cost of Rogun at $5.8 billion. The upgrade and the bill belong in one sentence.
The commander who said they could hang him has surrendered
Juma Khan Fateh gave up on Monday, ending nearly a week of fighting between his men and Taliban forces across the river from Tajikistan’s Darvaz district. He was flown to Faizabad, the terms are not public, and the mine workers trapped by the fighting have not been accounted for.
A Taliban feud crossed the river and killed a woman in Darvaz
Gunfire from the Afghan bank killed a 21-year-old woman in Tajikistan’s Darvaz district and drew a protest note from Dushanbe, the first official Tajik reaction to days of fighting in Badakhshan between Taliban forces and a dissident commander.
Four countries lost power in one afternoon, and the operators blame each other
A cascading failure on Friday cut electricity in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan within minutes. Kazakhstan’s operator says the trigger sat at Toktogul, and Bishkek has not answered the claim.
Dushanbe borrows 200 million dollars to keep paying salaries
The Eurasian Fund for Stabilization and Development signed a budget support loan with Tajikistan on Thursday at one per cent over twenty years. The state news agency says the money matters because a eurobond has to be repaid.
Nobody in Tatarstan's government has said the word citizenship
Tatarstan began paying compensation for the Nizhnekamsk deaths on Wednesday. One outlet reports that the money goes to every family regardless of citizenship. That sentence appears in no primary text the desk can find.
Ankara's condolences on 10 August went to Colombia
Eight Uzbek citizens and one Tajik citizen were killed at Nizhnekamsk on 10 August. The Turkish foreign ministry issued a condolence statement that day, numbered 155, about an earthquake in Colombia. It has published four releases since 10 August and none of them mentions the nine.
Tashkent will name its compensation when Moscow finishes investigating
Eight Uzbek citizens killed at Nizhnekamsk on 10 August flew home on Wednesday aboard an Uzbek defence ministry aircraft, at state expense. Asked what their families will be paid, the migration agency in Tashkent said the figure will be known once the Russian investigation ends. Tatarstan started paying its own families the same day.
The injured are recounted before the dead can fly home
Uzbekistan's working group reached Nizhnekamsk on Tuesday evening. The special flight it came to organise still has no date, and the official counts of the wounded moved twice in a day.
Uzbekistan's answer to eight dead workers is a special flight
Tashkent's response to the deaths of eight of its citizens at Nizhnekamsk arrived on Tuesday as logistics. A working group flew to Kazan, the emergencies ministry said the bodies would come home on a special flight, and no Uzbek government text named who fired the drones.