RUSSIANS RESCIND INTERNATIONAL PASSPORT REQUIREMENT FOR

UNCLAS DUSHANBE 001741

SIPDIS


SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PGOV PREL SMIG RS TI
SUBJECT: RUSSIANS RESCIND INTERNATIONAL PASSPORT REQUIREMENT FOR
TAJIKS



1. (U) The Tajik and Russian governments officially announced
that beginning November 1, citizens of both countries may travel
between Russia and Tajikistan on their internal passports. A
spokesman for the Tajik MFA stressed the understanding was not
an "international agreement" nor would it create "international
legal obligations" for either state.


2. (U) This decision reverses Russia's May 2005 policy
requiring Tajiks, and other citizens of former Soviet republics,
to have an international passport to enter the Russian
Federation. Between 500,000 and 800,000 Tajik citizens work in
Russia, and wage remittances are conservatively estimated at
$500 million, almost a quarter of the GDP of Tajikistan.


3. (SBU) COMMENT: When the passport requirement was
implemented, it presented an enormous challenge for the hundreds
of thousands of Tajiks already in Russia without the proper
documents. Not only does the policy reversal eliminate a
bureaucratic burden for migrant workers, a critical source of
income, it demonstrates Rahmonov's increasingly close
cooperation with Moscow. END COMMENT

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