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Thursday, 04 March 2004
RUSSIAN OFFICIAL SAYS TAJIK BASE TALKS DEADLOCKED
By empty (3/4/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A highly placed official in the Russian Defense Ministry said talks with Tajikistan on the transformation of Russia\'s 201st Motorized Infantry Division into a military base are \"deadlocked.\" According to the source, Tajikistan wants Russia to forgive $300 million in Tajik sovereign debt to Russia and to pay $50 million for the use of a military communications facility in Nurek. \"The Tajik authorities have gone so far as to consider their own property all of the Russian weapons, equipment, and infrastructure facilities located in the republic,\" the Russian Defense Ministry source told the news agency.
A highly placed official in the Russian Defense Ministry said talks with Tajikistan on the transformation of Russia\'s 201st Motorized Infantry Division into a military base are \"deadlocked.\" According to the source, Tajikistan wants Russia to forgive $300 million in Tajik sovereign debt to Russia and to pay $50 million for the use of a military communications facility in Nurek. \"The Tajik authorities have gone so far as to consider their own property all of the Russian weapons, equipment, and infrastructure facilities located in the republic,\" the Russian Defense Ministry source told the news agency. Russia\'s 201st Division has been deployed outside of Dushanbe for many years, and Russia would like to transform it into a permanent military base. (ITAR-TASS)