TAJIK SUMMIT IN MOSCOW SCREECHING BEFORE STARTING.

United Tajik Opposition chairman Saidabdullo Nuri’s late arrival yesterday in Moscow, together with enduring political differences, prevented the scheduled opening of the Russian-arbitrated Tajik summit. Instead, the delegations headed by Nuri and President Imomali Rahmonov held only "unofficial consultations" with the Russian and UN special envoys for Tajikistan. Dushanbe wants to preserve unilateral advantages it extracted at the UN-mediated Rahmonov-Nuri meeting on December 10-11 in Afghanistan. (Interfax, December 19. See Monitor, December 19, and Perspective section below)

Strange But True.