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Notes on Tajikistan

Over the summer, I spent about two weeks in Tajikistan, mostly in Dushanbe (the capital) and various points along the Pamir Highway, which borders Afghanistan and later leads into Kyrgyzstan. This …

quite poor) Culturally/linguistically Turkic Got independence from the USSR in 1991 and was run by the pre-independence Soviet leader until 2010 as a quasi-dictatorship, has been a very unstable oligarchic democracy ever since Geographically looks shockingly similar to Switzerland, basically all mountains with and valleys, competes with Tajikistan to be the prettiest of the Stans in terms of natural scenery Plus, he said there was a major lower-level corruption crackdown over the last few years, and police harassment of businesses, both big and small, had been virtually eradicated, which was great for the economy and the common man, so the President and his cronies seemed to have their priorities straight. In a masterwork of old-school clannish grifting, Rahmon has virtually complete control over the Tajik state and economy, including all government agencies and major companies, through a network of loyalists, nearly all of whom are either his direct family members or in-laws.

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