Identifier
Created
Classification
Origin
06DUSHANBE867
2006-05-11 11:47:00
CONFIDENTIAL
Embassy Dushanbe
Cable title:
WILL SCO SUMMIT RAISE WESTERN NGOS?
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C O N F I D E N T I A L DUSHANBE 000867
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
STATE FOR P, R, SCA/CEN, SCA/PPD, EUR/RUS, DRL, S/P
NSC FOR MILLARD, MERKEL
E.O. 12958: DECL: 5/11/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR PROP KDEM RS TI
SUBJECT: WILL SCO SUMMIT RAISE WESTERN NGOS?
CLASSIFIED BY: Richard E. Hoagland, Ambassador, EXEC, Embassy
Dushanbe.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)
C O N F I D E N T I A L DUSHANBE 000867
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
STATE FOR P, R, SCA/CEN, SCA/PPD, EUR/RUS, DRL, S/P
NSC FOR MILLARD, MERKEL
E.O. 12958: DECL: 5/11/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR PROP KDEM RS TI
SUBJECT: WILL SCO SUMMIT RAISE WESTERN NGOS?
CLASSIFIED BY: Richard E. Hoagland, Ambassador, EXEC, Embassy
Dushanbe.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)
1. (SBU) Russian Ambassador Ramazan Abdulatipov has gone public
denouncing Western NGOs in Tajikistan. "Biznis i Politika"
(April 20) published the long texty of a speech he delivered
earlier at a Dushanbe roundtable for Russian-speaking Tajik
intelligentsia, "The Role of NGOs in the Development of
Humanitarian Cooperation in the Post-Soviet Space."
2. (U) Embedded in the text that generally extols the "natural
spiritual, intellectual, and cultural affinities of Russians and
Tajiks" are a number of blunt swipes at Western NGOs.
-- It's "very bad" that Western countries have sent a large
number of NGO, far removed by distance and spirit
[spirituality], to the post-Soviet space.
-- Western governments send hundreds of NGOs and direct their
work, often in non-transparent ways that serve their own ends.
-- Western governments "raised a hue and cry" when the Russian
State Duma enacted a law to ensure that NGOs do not work against
the interests of the state. Tajikistan could learn from this
example.
-- Tajikistan is intrinsically linked with Russia in all
spheres, especially their spiritual affinities. Both need to
ensure that Western NGOs do not impose their foreign social and
cultural values on such ancient and deeply-rooted spiritual
civilizations.
3. (C) COMMENT: Abdulatipov's speech is a toned-down version
of the standard Russian line that U.S. NGOs are
intelligence-agency tools whose job is to prepare populations to
rise up to overthrow existing governments with "color
revolutions." The new emphasis on foreign NGOs imposing alien
social and cultural values echoes the Russian Orthodox Church's
recent pronouncements on democracy, as well as Tashkent's screed
that democracy means same-sex marriages. However, with regular
reports of skinheads and other criminal xenophobes abusing and
killing Tajiks and other foreigners in Russia, people in
Tajikistan are likely to take Abdulatipov's high-minded claptrap
about the shared cultural and spiritual values of the Russian
and Tajik peoples with a grain of salt.
4. (C) COMMENT CONTINUED. Since the Kremlin began its
full-court press in 2004 to reassert its authority in "its
post-Soviet space," Moscow has placed special emphasis on
Tajikistan because it fears losing its military base and vital
SIGINT installation. Having tested the waters against the
Western military presence in Central Asia in the 2005 Shanghai
Cooperation Organization (SC) Summit communique, the SCO, not
inconceivably, could use the 2006 SCO communique to raise the
issue of Western NGOs in "the post-Soviet space." END COMMENT.
HOAGLAND
SIPDIS
SIPDIS
STATE FOR P, R, SCA/CEN, SCA/PPD, EUR/RUS, DRL, S/P
NSC FOR MILLARD, MERKEL
E.O. 12958: DECL: 5/11/2016
TAGS: PREL PGOV PINR PROP KDEM RS TI
SUBJECT: WILL SCO SUMMIT RAISE WESTERN NGOS?
CLASSIFIED BY: Richard E. Hoagland, Ambassador, EXEC, Embassy
Dushanbe.
REASON: 1.4 (b),(d)
1. (SBU) Russian Ambassador Ramazan Abdulatipov has gone public
denouncing Western NGOs in Tajikistan. "Biznis i Politika"
(April 20) published the long texty of a speech he delivered
earlier at a Dushanbe roundtable for Russian-speaking Tajik
intelligentsia, "The Role of NGOs in the Development of
Humanitarian Cooperation in the Post-Soviet Space."
2. (U) Embedded in the text that generally extols the "natural
spiritual, intellectual, and cultural affinities of Russians and
Tajiks" are a number of blunt swipes at Western NGOs.
-- It's "very bad" that Western countries have sent a large
number of NGO, far removed by distance and spirit
[spirituality], to the post-Soviet space.
-- Western governments send hundreds of NGOs and direct their
work, often in non-transparent ways that serve their own ends.
-- Western governments "raised a hue and cry" when the Russian
State Duma enacted a law to ensure that NGOs do not work against
the interests of the state. Tajikistan could learn from this
example.
-- Tajikistan is intrinsically linked with Russia in all
spheres, especially their spiritual affinities. Both need to
ensure that Western NGOs do not impose their foreign social and
cultural values on such ancient and deeply-rooted spiritual
civilizations.
3. (C) COMMENT: Abdulatipov's speech is a toned-down version
of the standard Russian line that U.S. NGOs are
intelligence-agency tools whose job is to prepare populations to
rise up to overthrow existing governments with "color
revolutions." The new emphasis on foreign NGOs imposing alien
social and cultural values echoes the Russian Orthodox Church's
recent pronouncements on democracy, as well as Tashkent's screed
that democracy means same-sex marriages. However, with regular
reports of skinheads and other criminal xenophobes abusing and
killing Tajiks and other foreigners in Russia, people in
Tajikistan are likely to take Abdulatipov's high-minded claptrap
about the shared cultural and spiritual values of the Russian
and Tajik peoples with a grain of salt.
4. (C) COMMENT CONTINUED. Since the Kremlin began its
full-court press in 2004 to reassert its authority in "its
post-Soviet space," Moscow has placed special emphasis on
Tajikistan because it fears losing its military base and vital
SIGINT installation. Having tested the waters against the
Western military presence in Central Asia in the 2005 Shanghai
Cooperation Organization (SC) Summit communique, the SCO, not
inconceivably, could use the 2006 SCO communique to raise the
issue of Western NGOs in "the post-Soviet space." END COMMENT.
HOAGLAND