RUSSIA TO ASSUME NEW BURDENS IN TAJIKISTAN.

Tajik president Emomali Rakhmonov’s spokesman told a Dushanbe briefing September 8 that Boris Yeltsin’s and Viktor Chernomyrdin’s talks with Rakhmonov in the Kremlin September 6 and 7 resulted in the following decisions: additional measures to enhance defense of the Tajik-Afghan border, described as a CIS southern border; Russian aid in the creation of a Tajik army "and other force structures;" a Russian credit in 1996 to support Tajikistan’s national currency and finance its consumer goods imports from Russia; and aid for completion of a large-capacity hydropower station in Tajikistan. The sides also agreed on guidelines for setting up joint financial-industrial groups–i.e. turning over to Russia equity in Tajik enterprises–and agreed to form a joint customs area. These steps appear intended to shore up the Dushanbe government’s position in the runup to its upcoming negotiations with the resistance, tentatively rescheduled for this month. (14)

Eastward: