Tajikistan wants Moscow to pay at least $250 million a year for the Russian military base deployed in the Central Asian state, Kommersant business daily reported on Thursday citing an unnamed Tajik source.
The Russian military base in Tajikistan was opened in 2004 and is the largest Russia’s base for ground forces abroad with up to 7,000 military servicemen stationed there. The base’s presence in Tajikistan expires in 2014, according to existing agreements.
The source said that in a new draft agreement on the prolongation of the base’s presence Tajikistan included 20 provisions, which are “unclear and unacceptable for Russia.”
The Russian Defense Ministry neither confirmed nor rejected this information saying that it still did not receive the draft agreement from Tajikistan, the daily added.
Under the current agreements Russia does not pay Tajikistan for its military base, but renders the country military and technical assistance. However, this form of assistance is not officially stated as a form of the payment.
