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Russia

To The Hills Of Tajikistan, Where The Men Have Gone Away

A visit inside a Tajik village that has sent nearly all of its men to work in Russia. These are the people affected when President Dmitry Medvedev talks about restricting Tajik guest workers in Russia.

Villagers in Tajikistan's Fann Mountains
Villagers in Tajikistan's Fann Mountains
Darya Yurshina and Aleksei Golubtsov

ALAUDIN VALLEY – Russia's relationship with Tajikistan has soured following an incident involving a Russian pilot who was jailed – along with his Estonian co-pilot – after making an emergency landing in the Central Asian nation.

Russia responded by beginning to deport Tajik guest workers, a move that threatens Tajikistan's entire economy. In total, some 700,000 Tajik citizens work in Russia. In the last quarter, they sent home some $742 million in remittances. Overall, the money guest workers send back makes up half of the republic's government budget.

The Alaudin Valley is in the Fann Mountains in eastern Tajikistan. The place long held an allure for Russian writers and adventurers. Later, during the Soviet era, it was a popular tourist destination. Yet establishing a strong relationship with the people of the mountainous region is not easy.

Men are a rarity in the area. Nearly every family has at least one breadwinner working in Russia, if not more. The farm work falls to the women, who divide it up among themselves.

Each summer, the village chooses the most experienced and skilled women to take all of the cows (up to 300 of them) to the summer pastures high up on in the mountains. The women spend four months there with their children, since there is no one to leave the children with. They milk the cows and prepare products for the winter: cheese, butter and kaymak, a traditional clotted cheese. These fermented goods get them through the winter when snow and avalanches cut off all contact with civilization.

Residents here generally have two questions for visiting Russians. The first one, given the Alaudin Valley's dependence of remittances from Russia, is obvious: Is President Dmitry Medvedev going to limit the entry of Tajik guest workers? The second question is less obvious: Are there cows in Moscow? The Alaudin Valley's women truly can't imagine life without either.

Read the original story in Russian.

Photo - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:People_of_Fanns.JPG

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Economy

Lex Tusk? How Poland’s Controversial "Russian Influence" Law Will Subvert Democracy

The new “lex Tusk” includes language about companies and their management. But is this likely to be a fair investigation into breaking sanctions on Russia, or a political witch-hunt in the business sphere?

Photo of President of the Republic of Poland Andrzej Duda

Polish President Andrzej Duda

Piotr Miaczynski, Leszek Kostrzewski

-Analysis-

WARSAW — Poland’s new Commission for investigating Russian influence, which President Andrzej Duda signed into law on Monday, will be able to summon representatives of any company for inquiry. It has sparked a major controversy in Polish politics, as political opponents of the government warn that the Commission has been given near absolute power to investigate and punish any citizen, business or organization.

And opposition politicians are expected to be high on the list of would-be suspects, starting with Donald Tusk, who is challenging the ruling PiS government to return to the presidency next fall. For that reason, it has been sardonically dubbed: Lex Tusk.

University of Warsaw law professor Michal Romanowski notes that the interests of any firm can be considered favorable to Russia. “These are instruments which the likes of Putin and Orban would not be ashamed of," Romanowski said.

The law on the Commission for examining Russian influences has "atomic" prerogatives sewn into it. Nine members of the Commission with the rank of secretary of state will be able to summon virtually anyone, with the powers of severe punishment.

Under the new law, these Commissioners will become arbiters of nearly absolute power, and will be able to use the resources of nearly any organ of the state, including the secret services, in order to demand access to every available document. They will be able to prosecute people for acts which were not prohibited at the time they were committed.

Their prerogatives are broader than that of the President or the Prime Minister, wider than those of any court. And there is virtually no oversight over their actions.

Nobody can feel safe. This includes companies, their management, lawyers, journalists, and trade unionists.

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