Russia can take strict measures concerning Tajikistan because of the sentence against two pilots

Added: (Fri Nov 11 2011)

Pressbox (Press Release) - On Tuesday, November, 8th Kurgan-Tyube court of Tajikistan sentenced two pilots, the citizen of Estonia Alexey Rudenko and the citizen of Russia Vladimir Sadovnichy for smuggling, illegal crossing of border and infringement of flight rules. This sentence caused extremely negative reaction of the Foreign Ministry of Russia.

During the telephone conversation with the Minister for Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan Hamrohonom Zarifi the head of the department of Foreign Ministry of Russia Sergey Lavrov declared that Tajikistan broke the international obligations concerning the Russian pilot as they didn’t notify the department about the arrest in time.

The Foreign Ministry of Russia said: “Tajikistan officers didn’t inform about the arrest of the Russian citizen within 4 days as it is provided by the convention and it is the worst neglect of the international obligations and infringement of the Consular convention. The embassy of Russia in Tajikistan learned about it not from the authorities of Tajikistan but from the general director of “Airline Rolkan” S.A. Polujanov and only on May, 16th, 2011. The department sent the official inquiries to the State Committee of national safety and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan immediately. The formal notice about V.V. Sadovnichy’s arrest was received only on May, 31st”.

As mentioned in the document, since that moment the embassy of Russia in Tajikistan has controlled the process, the diplomats were present at all judicial sessions and meetings with different departments of Tajikistan. However all arguments of the Russian officers were ignored and the case was initiated although there weren’t any convincing proofs.

According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia, in reply to Sergey Lavrov’s words Khamrokhon Zarifi referred to the complexities connected with numerous problems with “Airline Rolkan” and Afghanistan authorities claims to this company.

In turn, the Russian minister underlined that the question concerning Russian citizen should be solved without any artificial coordination.

Meanwhile, during the press conference on Thursday, November, 10th, following the results of litigation the general public prosecutor of Tajikistan Sherhon Salimzoda declared that the case concerning pilots of Russian airline hasn’t any political underlying reason and accused mass-media of incorrect interpretation of the situation around “usual criminal case”.

The consul general of Russia in Tajikistan Igor Labuzov asked why the Russian authorities had been informed about the incident only on May, 31st, 2011. Sherhon Salimzoda answered that those were “details”.

According to the Federation Council press-service, the chairman of the council of the Federation Valentina Matvienko wrote the request letter to continue legal investigation of the case conserning the pilots Vladimir Sadovnichego and Alexey Rudenko. She handed this request over to the speaker of the upper chamber of parliament of Tajikistan Mahmadsaidom Ubajdulloev.

In particular, Valentina Matvienko declared that Russian members of parliament haven't the right to interfere in the work of the Tadjik judicial powers, however she considers “this sentence as unfairly severe, deprived of sufficient proofs and having obviously political underlying reason”.

According to the press-service, the speaker of the Federation Council has expressed hope that the leaders of Tajikistan will study the letter of the upper chamber of the Russian parliament with the gravity and will take into consideration the big public resonance of this incident in Russia.

Meanwhile, some Russian politicians, public figures and press ask Moscow authorities to take necessary concerning Tajikistan where the court has made politically motivated decision.

Observers agree in opinion that the sentence has already damaged to relations between Moscow and Dushanbe. However, it Tadjikistan powers will be passive in solving the problem of two pilots it may lead to even worse relations.

For example, as Russia can impose restrictions for cash remittances to Tajikistan, introduce rigid quotas and visa regime for citizens of this country. Besides, Russia is one of the basic suppliers of the humanitarian and military help to Tajikistan. According to the official data, last year the Russian Federation allocated 63 million dollars for Dushanbe.

The Tadjik authorities unlikely dared to do such impudent demarche. It isn’t a secret that such countries as Russia (as the former mother country), China (as the key economic partner and the neighbor), Iran (as the country closest on culture and ethnic structure) and the USA (as while the unique world center of force) have the greatest influence on the situation in this country.

There is no influence of Moscow in this situation undoubtedly. The Chinese National Republic which is a member of SCO is extremely interested in stability on the territory of all central-Asian regions and hardly could go on intensity escalation. In turn, official Teheran also doesn't want to spoil the relation with Russia which is the mediator in solving some question concerning nuclear problems.

Some analysts believe that strain relations between Russia and Tajikistan can be favorable only for the USA which try to prevent reintegration of the CIS countries and to break outlined unification of economic processes within the limits of the Customs union and Eurasian Economic Community. Thus, Tajikistan actually isn't independent in decision-making and Washington can use it as a base for Iran attack.

According to mass media, Vladimir Sadovnichy and Alexey Rudenko were the heads of the crews of two planes “An-72” of Russian company Rolkan Investmens Ltd. In March, 2011 they finished the contract on transportation of products and humanitarian help in Afghanistan and left Kabul for city airport of Kurgan-Tyube, having obtained the permit to cross the border of Tajikistan.

Being on near the border, the commander of crew of “An-72” Vladimir Sadovnichy communicated with the dispatcher of “Tadzhikaeronavigatsiya” who declared that there was no permission to land, that’s why the plane had to return back to Kabul.

Then pilot Vladimir Sadovnichy, being guided by the international air code, requested an emergency landing at the airport of Kurgan-Tyube. Alexey Rudenko inquired the same. However they didn’t get permission.

After landing both crews were arrested without any charges by employees of Committee of national safety of Tajikistan. During two months pilots were arrested and held in hotel and on May, 12th, 2011 they were arrested on charge of illegal crossing of the border, infringement of rules of the international flights and smuggling.

Both planes "An-72" were confiscated in favor of Tajikistan.

http://penzanews.ru/en/opinion/50803-2011