Russia to Beef Up Tajikistan Presence

Russia will boost its military presence in the Central Asian nation of Tajikistan to stem the flow of terrorism and drugs from neighboring Afghanistan and promote stability in the region, President Vladimir V. Putin said Sunday while visiting the former Soviet republic.

“A truly peaceful and stable Afghanistan is still a very long way away,” Putin said in televised remarks to officers of a Russian motorized infantry division based in Tajikistan. “Moreover, our special services, including those from the Defense Ministry, have recently reported the Taliban and Al Qaeda significantly stepping up their activities and rebuilding their networks. It is up to the anti-terrorist international coalition to improve and intensify its efforts.”

Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States, an American presence has grown in Central Asia with Putin’s acquiescence. U.S. forces have used Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan to support operations in Afghanistan, where more than 11,000 U.S. and allied troops are searching for remnants of the ousted Taliban regime and Osama bin Laden’s Al Qaeda network.

But Moscow still sees the region as its own sphere of influence. Russia currently has an estimated 10,000 to 14,000 troops in Tajikistan who help guard the country’s long and porous border with Afghanistan.

Putin and Tajik President Emamali Rakhmonov ordered officials to prepare an agreement for signing by the end of May on building a new main base for Russian forces in the country and defining their legal status, Russian news agencies reported from Dushanbe, the Tajik capital.

Russia’s military presence helped former Communist boss Rakhmonov hang on to power through a 1992-97 civil war, which was ended through a power-sharing deal with militant Islamic opponents.

Moscow has also recently announced plans to build up its military presence in Kyrgyzstan.

Putin’s aim is to solidify the status quo in Central Asia, not to try to throw the U.S. out, said Ivan Safranchuk, director of the Moscow branch of the Washington-based Center for Defense Information.

“It has already become clear to policymakers at the Kremlin that Russia will not be able to control the entire Central Asian region solely on its own,” Safranchuk said. “Today, the responsibility for maintaining security and stability in Central Asia is shared between Russia and the U.S. And since Russia has traditionally dominated in Tajikistan, this will become Russia’s zone of responsibility.”

Putin was in Tajikistan on a three-day visit for meetings of the Eurasian Economic Community interstate council and the Collective Security Treaty Council, bodies aimed at rebuilding links between the former Soviet states.

Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan A. Nazarbayev, chairman of the economic council, said its meeting included discussions of stepped-up cooperation to fight drug trafficking.

In Moscow, Deputy Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Trubnikov told reporters Sunday that Russia wants to see tougher measures to fight increased drug production in Afghanistan, including incentives to discourage opium poppy farming. Opium and heroin from Afghanistan often are smuggled across Tajikistan and on to Russia and Western Europe. Partly as a result, drug addiction is growing rapidly in Russia.

Trubnikov also said the general effectiveness of coalition forces in Afghanistan is “so far not very high.”

Putin also met in Dushanbe with Supreme Mufti Amonulla Nematzade, the leader of Tajikistan’s Muslims. Putin stressed that because millions of Russian citizens are Muslim, “this gives us the right to view Russia as part of the Muslim world to some extent.”

Putin’s comments reflected an effort to prevent Russia’s role in Tajikistan, and in the international anti-terrorist coalition, from being seen in terms of religious conflict, Safranchuk said.

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Alexei V. Kuznetsov of The Times’ Moscow Bureau contributed to this report.