How the permanent leader of Tajikistan has evolved. From Rakhmonov to Rahmon

Today, October 5, the head of Tajikistan, Emomali Rahmon, turns 65 years old; For 23 years, he has been president of the republic. Despite the fact that the head of the country is a public person, it is rather difficult to find private information about Emomali Rahmon: the Tajik president rarely gives interviews, and close people do not tell journalists about him.

Open Asia Online decided to collect interesting facts about Emomali Rahmon.

Emomali Rahmon is the president with the largest number of children

On the territory of the former USSR, the President of Tajikistan is considered the father of many children: he has nine children - 7 daughters and two sons. All the daughters of Emomali Rahmon are enough. The eldest son, Rustam Emomali, is the mayor of Dushanbe, the youngest, Somon, born in 1999, is a student at one of the Tajik universities.

Almost nothing is known about the wife of the Tajik president, Azizmo Asadullayeva: she is a rare guest at receptions and almost never accompanies her husband on trips.

Emomali Rahmon with his eldest son Rustam Emomali

Emomali Rahmon with his youngest son Somon Emomali

Emomali Rahmon was a sailor

The future leader of Tajikistan in 1971-1974 served in the military as a sailor in the Pacific Fleet. By the way, five years ago, when Rahmon was celebrating his 60th birthday, Vladimir Putin told his Tajik colleague the military book of the sailor of the Soviet Pacific Fleet Emomali Rakhmonov found in the archives of the Russian Ministry of Defense.

Emomali Rahmon started his career as an electrician

At the age of 17, immediately after graduating from vocational school No. 40 in Kalininabad (now Sarband, a city 110 km from Dushanbe - approx. OA), Emomali, then still Rakhmonov, went to work as a master electrician at an oil plant in Kurgan-Tube. Then there was the army, and only then the university: he graduated from the correspondence department of the Faculty of Economics of the Tajik National University.

From 1987 to 1992 he was the director of the state farm named after Lenin in the Dangara region, in 1992 he was elected chairman of the Supreme Council of the Republic of Tajikistan, two years later, during a popular vote, Emomali Rakhmonov became president of the country. In those elections, he won 59% of the vote, ahead of his rival Abdumalik Abdullajanov, who received 34% of voters.

An attempt was made on the life of Emomali Rahmon

In 1997, an attempt was made on the life of the President of Tajikistan in Khujand. Then the head of state and several of his entourage, including former Interior Minister Yakub Salimov, were injured. In 2012, Salimov, in an interview with our partners, the Asia Plus media group, described this case as follows:

“Suddenly, that person threw a grenade, it fell a meter away from the president. The head of state was carried away by a lively conversation with people and did not see this moment. I hit the grenade with my right foot and, covering the president with myself, knocked him to the ground. There was a deafening explosion, and shooting began. After a few seconds, I picked up the president, put his left hand on my neck and quickly led him towards the Palace of Culture. The four officers who were with me formed a shield around us and accompanied us. It became clear that the president was limping, he was wounded in the leg.”

By the way, Salimov gave this interview already from prison: in 2003, in Russia, the Tajik side, he was detained and extradited to Dushanbe. In April 2005, Salimov was sentenced to 15 years in prison on charges of betraying his homeland; he was released under an amnesty only last year.

In 2012, Tajik newspapers reported that it was not Salimov, but Rakhmonov's personal bodyguard, who actually saved the president's life in 1997.

Emomali Rahmon was Rahmonov

The full name of the president until 2007 was Emomali Sharipovich Rakhmonov. However, 10 years ago, Emomali Rahmonov wished to make adjustments to his surname and continue to be called Emomali Rahmon. He announced this, speaking to the intelligentsia of the country on the eve of the Navruz holiday.

According to the president of the republic, Tajiks "need to return to our cultural roots and use national toponymy."

“For example, in various documents, including international ones, my name and surname are called differently, so I would like to be called Emomali Rahmon, after the name of my late father,” the president of the republic said then.

Emomali Rahmon is a sports fan

“For an amateur, he plays (tennis - approx. OA) very well. By the way, at the summit in Kazakhstan, our president won tennis against the President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov. Moreover, Karimov has been playing tennis for a long time. Emomali Sharipovich also plays volleyball and football quite well,” Bahrulo Radzhabaliev, former president of the National Olympic Committee, told local journalists.

Emomali Rahmon visited the Kaaba twice

For the first time, the President of Tajikistan was allowed inside the Kaaba by permission of the King of Sadovskaya Arabia in 2005, the second time - in 2016. Hajj Emomali Rahmon performed four times. The last time he visited Mecca last year, then the president of the country with his wife, children and close relatives in the Kaaba, he died.

Emomali Rahmon managed to defeat Trump in a handshake

Donald Trump's well-known way of shaking hands with his colleagues, when he can forcefully pull a person towards him, did not work with Emomali Rahmon. This year, during a meeting of the two presidents in Saudi Arabia, the Tajik president managed to keep his balance while shaking Trump's hand and even slightly pulled him over to his side.

Trump and Rahmon were even mentioned in The Washington Post, noting that the head of Tajikistan was ready for the standard manner of the American president and “pulled” his hand in time. “It seems that Trump’s handshake moment didn’t go as planned,” the article noted.

Emomali Rahmon is officially assigned the status of the Leader of the Nation

In 2015, the Law "On the Founder of Peace and National Unity - the Leader of the Nation" was adopted in Tajikistan. According to this law, special privileges are assigned to the Leader of the Nation. For example, the Leader of the Nation, after leaving the post of President of the country, retains the right to address the people of the Republic and take part in important state events and speak at them. For all actions committed during the years of ruling the country, the Leader of the Nation is guaranteed immunity. The leader of the nation is forbidden to detain, arrest and search. Property and real estate belonging to the Leader of the Nation and his relatives are also inviolable.


After Emomali Rahmon leaves his post, as the Leader of the Nation, he will have his own working residence in the capital and in his small homeland and will remain under the protection of state security agencies for life - along with his family.

Experts consider the actual abolition of the visa regime to be the main achievement of the visit of the President of the Republic of Uzbekistan to Tajikistan, and Shavkat Mirziyoyev promises never to close the opened gates.

Now residents of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan will be able to stay on the territory of a neighboring country for 30 days without the need to obtain a visa.

Rashid Ghani Abdullo, a Tajik expert on regional issues, considers this decision to be the de facto abolition of the visa regime introduced at the initiative of Tashkent in 2001.

According to the press service of the Tajik president, during Mirziyoyev's visit to Dushanbe from March 8 to 10, 27 agreements were signed between the countries, among which is an agreement on Uzbekistan's participation in the construction of the Rogun hydroelectric power station.

The same hydroelectric power station, which in the 2000s became a bone of contention during the reign of the first president of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov. He believed that the high dam of the Rogun hydroelectric power station threatened to leave the downstream countries, more precisely, Uzbekistan, without irrigation water.

Now Mirziyoyev said that “Tashkent is interested in the development of clean energy in Tajikistan and for this purpose will take a share in the construction of the Rogun hydroelectric power station, and in the coming days will begin importing Tajik electricity in the amount of 1.5 billion kilowatt-hours.

The leaders of the Republic of Tatarstan and the Republic of Uzbekistan often held hands ... Photo: press service of the President of the Republic of Tatarstan

Rashid Ghani Abdullo recalls that at one time the Rogun HPP project was developed at a Soviet research institute located in the Uzbek capital, and therefore Tashkent is well aware of all the benefits and possible risks from the construction of this hydroelectric complex.

Rahmatillo Zoyirov, chairman of the Social Democratic Party of Tajikistan, agrees with him, and believes that Mirziyoyev put an end to the disagreements of the Karimov period by expressing a desire to invest in the construction of the Rogun hydroelectric power station.

The Uzbek leader himself, at a meeting with Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, said that Uzbekistan intends to transfer 32% of its generating capacity to renewable energy sources over the next five years.

Therefore, Tajik experts do not exclude that Tashkent, having invested in the construction of the Rogun hydroelectric power station, will later be able to receive dividends in the form of electricity generated at this station.

Among the signed agreements, one can also mention the cooperation of the special services of the Republic of Uzbekistan and the Republic of Tajikistan in the field of preventing terrorist threats, as well as between the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the two countries on the joint investigation of criminal cases.

The very visit of Shavkat Mirziyoyev to Tajikistan was called historical by the parties and experts from the very first day.

If only because President Rahmon personally met and saw off his Uzbek colleague at the airport for the first time.

Earlier, the Prime Minister of the country met and saw off the first persons of foreign states.

Mirziyoyev did not remain in debt either, who during the two days of his visit, according to a TV report about the meetings of the two leaders, called Rahmon at least 20 times “dear brother”.

The first day of the visit began with talks between the two presidents: first in a one-on-one format, and then with the participation of delegations from both countries. After the completion of the negotiations, the presidents went to the capital's "Manege", where they launched the "Made in Uzbekistan" exhibition.

The exhibition of industrial goods of Uzbekistan presents the products of more than a hundred enterprises.

The foreign trade turnover between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan tends to grow, and over the past year its volumes have increased six times.

So, if in 2015 this figure reached $12 million, then in 2017 it was $126 million. In the short term, the parties agreed to increase mutual trade: this year - up to 500 million US dollars, and in the future - up to one billion.

During the past business forum, Uzbek entrepreneurs expressed their hope for the creation of joint ventures with Tajikistan.

Azamat Ortykov, one of the leaders of the Tashkent company Sanitopharm, said that their company produces 50 percent of anti-infective agents and drugs.

“We also provide Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan with such drugs. Our company hopes to find its niche in the drug market of Tajikistan. We already have agreements on the supply of anti-infective drugs to Tajikistan. But we came to the conclusion that we need to create a joint Tajik-Uzbek enterprise,” said Azamat Ortykov.

The head of the Samarkand Affarel company, Alisher Ismoilov, also hopes that, together with their Tajik colleagues, they will sign an agreement to establish a joint venture to produce modern clothing.

According to him, such an enterprise has already been created with partners from South Korea.

“We produce sportswear made of cotton fiber by order of world brands Adidas and Nike… We hope that our joint venture with Tajikistan will start working very soon,” the C-1 interlocutor noted.

According to the state television channel of Tajikistan, at the end of the business forum, an agreement was signed on opening a joint automobile production in Tajikistan.

The evening of the first day of Mirziyoyev's visit to Tajikistan ended with a grandiose concert "Evening of Friendship" with the participation of famous artists from the two neighboring countries.

But the crown number of this show, according to experts, was the joint performance of the song "Zamon, Zamon ..." in Tajik and Uzbek.

The song was performed by masters of vocal art Sherali Juraev from Uzbekistan and Jurabek Murodov from Tajikistan. About three thousand spectators, including the presidents of the two countries, stood in the hall and applauded the singing of the performers, and tears of joy appeared in the eyes of millions of viewers.

Ordinary residents of Tajikistan noticed that the Uzbek president, compared to his Tajik counterpart, practically did not look into pre-prepared texts.

He "flaunted" such grandiloquent epithets as "Tajiks and Uzbeks - two lines of one couplet"; "I entered into the opening of the gate, and my task is to never close the gate again."

During the concert, Shavkat Mirziyoyev said that he gave Emomali Rahmon a symbolic golden gate, as well as a collection of works and correspondence of two great poets of the East - Tajik Abdurakhmoni Jomi and Uzbek Alisher Navoi, published under the patronage of the Uzbek president himself.

Emomali Rahmon has been the permanent president of Tajikistan since 1994. After the constitutional referendum in May 2016, an amendment was made to the country's basic law, removing the restriction on the number of re-elections to the post of head of state.

From the year of his election to the highest position in the country, the President of the Republic acquired the title "Peshvoi Millat". The full name of the title is "Founder of Peace and National Unity - Leader of the Nation".

Childhood and youth

Emomali Sharipovich Rakhmonov appeared in a large family in the village of Dangara, Kulyab region, TSSR. Emomali is the third son in the Rakhmonov family. The father of the future president, Sharif Rakhmonov, is a veteran of the Great Patriotic War and was awarded the Order of Glory of two degrees. Mairam Sharifova's mother is a housewife, raised children and kept house.

The future leader of the nation, having graduated from a comprehensive school in 1969, got a job as an electrician at an oil mill in Kurgan-Tyube. In the early 1970s, Emomali Rahmon served in the Pacific Fleet, and after demobilization he returned to the plant, later working as a salesman.

In the late 70s, Rakhmonov entered the university by correspondence, choosing the faculty of economics. He received his diploma in 1982.

Politics

Since 1976, Emomali Rahmon has been the secretary of the board of a collective farm in the Dangara district of the Kulyab region. For six years, the young man has grown from the secretary of the party committee of the state farm to the instructor of the district committee.

In the summer of 1988, Rakhmonov took the chair of the director of the state farm and worked in this position until 1992, until he became a deputy of the Supreme Council of Tajikistan.

Elections to the Supreme Soviet of the TSSR were held under the rumble of opposition rallies. Due to the abundance of red symbols, the rallies were called communist. The Popular Front of Emomali Rahmon opposed the "red camp". In December 1992, the front-line soldiers occupied the capital, and Emomali headed the government.

In November 1994, the country held a constitutional referendum and presidential elections. Emomali Rahmon won with 58.7% of the vote. 95.7% of voters in Tajikistan voted for the updated Constitution.

The united opposition and its supporters did not come to the elections and the referendum, declaring the elections rigged in advance.

The president

To reduce the degree of confrontation, in June 1997, Emomali Rahmon and his government signed a truce with the opposition, giving it a dozen government seats. Islamists joined state structures, the parliament and the army, but the fight against the opposition did not stop. There were two assassination attempts on the leader. The first was in April 1997 in Khujand: a grenade flew into the presidential cortege. In November 2001, a terrorist set off explosives near the podium in Khujand, where the head of state was speaking. Emomali Rahmon was not injured either in the first or in the second case.

In the winter of 1997, Colonel Mahmud Khudoyberdiyev, one of the former leaders of the Popular Front, started a rebellion, which was supported in Uzbekistan. Emomali Rakhmonov crushed the rebellion and undertook to eliminate yesterday's comrades-in-arms and influential oppositionists.

In 2003, the former head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Tajikistan, Yakub Salimov, was detained in Moscow and extradited to his homeland, where he was sentenced to 15 years in a maximum security prison.

It is noteworthy that Yakub Salimov saved President Rahmon during the first assassination attempt. Salimov pushed the president away and covered his body from shrapnel. Emomali Rahmon thanked and said in a televised address that he and his children will always remember Yakub Salimov. But 6 years after the assassination attempt, Salimov, appointed Tajik ambassador to Turkey, is accused of abuse of power, arms trafficking and attempted coup. The ambassador was arrested in Moscow, where he fled.

And in December 2004, the second opponent of Emomali Rahmon, the head of the Tajik Democratic Party, Mahmadruzi Iskandarov, was arrested in Moscow. After four months in a pre-trial detention center, he was released, but in the spring of the following year, Iskandarov received 23 years in prison.

"Misfire" happened only with the former Minister of Trade Khabibullo Nasrulloev. At the request of the prosecutor's office of Tajikistan, he was detained in Moscow, but the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation refused to extradite Iskandarov to the authorities of the republic. At home, he was accused of involvement in illegal armed groups that threatened to overthrow state power in Tajikistan. Previously, Nasrulloev was a supporter of the Popular Front and an ally of Rakhmonov, but in the presidential elections he supported his rival Abdumalik Abdulojonov.

After the elimination of the most ardent oppositionists, Emomali Rahmon took up the strengthening of power. In 2003, he held a referendum that resulted in changes to the constitution. The leader of the nation received the right to run for president in 2006 and hold the presidency for two more 7-year terms.

In 2006, Emomali Rahmon won the next presidential election. In line with the “Tajikization” taking place in the republic, Russian endings of surnames were banned. So Rakhmonov became Rakhmon and "cut off" his patronymic. A period of return to folk traditions and the old way of life began. The Islamic Quran was translated into Tajik, and in 2009 a decision was made that Tajik was the only possible language for business use. The Russian language, despite the promises of Emomali Rahmon, was "out of work."

In December 2009, information appeared in the Russian media that President Emomali Rahmon hit the President of Uzbekistan. The Tajik leader admitted to a difficult relationship with the head of a neighboring state in Dushanbe, at a meeting with Tajik journalists, where the construction of the Rogun hydroelectric power station was discussed.

Journalists claim that Emomali Rahmon spoke about disputes with and even that he had two fights with the President of Uzbekistan. Russian publications wrote that Rakhmonov was confiding "not for publication", but there were fifty journalists in the hall who did not miss the opportunity to seize on the sensation.

On the second day after the publication of Rahmon's interview, there were no comments from the press services of the presidents of the two republics, so there was room for speculation.

In 2011, the English-language weekly "The Economist" in the compiled "Index of Democracy of the Countries of the World" put Tajikistan on 151 steps as a state with an authoritarian regime. The economy of the poorest republic of the USSR, undermined by the war, which claimed up to 120 thousand lives and 18 annual budgets, gradually recovered. In 1999, according to the World Bank, 83% of people were below the poverty line. But in 2011, the figure dropped to 45%.

The country's economy is dependent on the funds earned by labor migrants. According to the World Bank, in 2011, 47% of Tajikistan's GDP came from migrants' remittances.

Emomali Rahmon managed to resolve the territorial dispute with China, which lasted 130 years. China demanded the return of 28.5 thousand km². During a visit to Beijing, the President of Tajikistan ceded to China 1.1 thousand km² in the Eastern Pamirs. The political maneuver that resolved the territorial dispute was appreciated by the European Council, awarding the head of state the title of "Leader of the 21st century."

In November 2013, in the presidential elections, Emomali Rahmon took the presidency for the 4th time. And in 2015, he ratified a law that allowed him to hold the post of head of state for life.

Personal life

Emomali Rahmon is married to compatriot Azizmo Asadullayeva. The couple had 9 children: two sons and seven daughters. All occupy key positions in the country and are connected by dynastic marriages with representatives of the authorities of the republic. The eldest daughter Firuza is married to the head of the Tajik railway. Son Rustam, born in 1987, headed the anti-smuggling department, today the mayor of the capital.

Ozoda's daughter received a degree from the University of Maryland. In early 2016, Emomali Rahmon appointed Ozoda Rahmon as head of the presidential administration. Married to the Deputy Minister of Finance of the Republic.

Parvin's daughter is married to the son of the Minister of Energy and Industry. The sixth daughter of Zarrin is the announcer of the state television channel. In 2013, she married the son of the head of the Communications Service.

In his free time, the head of state enjoys hunting and reading books. He collects antiques. Ill-wishers and the opposition attribute defamatory connections to Rahmon and reproach him for having a "harem". Emomali Rakhmonov's mistresses are singers Gulra Tabarova, national television announcer Munira Rakhimova and the daughter of the republic's defense minister Diana Khairulloeva. Of course, the information has not been officially confirmed and there is no evidence.

Emomali Rahmon now

In February 2017, the President of Tajikistan told reporters why he appointed his eldest son as mayor of Dushanbe. According to him, Rahmon Rustam Emomali is an experienced manager who "cannot be negatively influenced by outsiders." Rumor has it that Emomali Rahmon sees in his son a successor to the presidency, which he will take in 2020.

At the end of February 2017, he flew to Dushanbe. The visit of the leader of the Russian Federation was timed to coincide with the 25th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the countries. At a meeting in the Palace of the Nation (according to the English website Theestle.Net second only to the White House), the presidents discussed trade and economic cooperation and signed a package of joint documents.

State

A February 16, 2010, telegram from the American embassy in Tajikistan states that the president's relatives manage the republic's large businesses and own a bank. The state's exports are limited to aluminum and electricity from hydroelectric power plants, while two-thirds of the profits of the Tajik aluminum plant in Tursunzade end up in the offshore companies of the president's company. From these receipts, Rahmon allegedly "made" a billion-dollar fortune.

There is no official confirmation of the information or a completed investigation confirming the rumors.

October 5 marks 65 years Tajik President Emomali Rahmon. Being in fact the leader of the republic for life, he officially bears the title of "Founder of Peace and National Unity - Leader of the Nation." How did a former electrician, salesman and secretary of the party committee achieve all this?

Emomali Rakhmonov (he had such a surname until 2007) was born in a small village in the Kulyab region of the Tajik SSR and was the third son in a large family. The father of the future president is a veteran of the Great Patriotic War, his mother is a housewife. After school, Emomali worked as an electrician at an oil plant, in the 1970s he served in the Pacific Fleet, after demobilization he returned to the plant, but then got a job as a salesman. He studied in absentia at the university (Faculty of Economics), was secretary of the board and chairman of the trade union committee of the collective farm, held a position in party bodies. In a few years he rose from the secretary of the party committee of the state farm to the instructor of the district committee, and soon became the director of the state farm. Lenin.

In 1992, Rakhmonov was elected a deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the Tajik SSR. In 1994, the country held a constitutional referendum and presidential elections. Rakhmonov won them with more than half of the votes.

Evaluated the qualities of a good performer

According to experts, after the collapse of the USSR, two groups competed fiercely in Tajikistan: the former party and economic nomenclature, which was supported by Russia and Uzbekistan, and the "Islamic-democratic" opposition. A bloody struggle for power began in the country, which quickly turned into a real civil war.

“I witnessed how Emomali Rahmon, at that time still Rahmonov, was elected chairman of the Supreme Council of Tajikistan,” said AiF. Arkady Dubnov, expert on the countries of Central Asia. - He was then quite timid and thin, a kind of handsome and young chairman of the Kulyab regional executive committee, and before that - a field commander. He never fought for power: he was singled out, appreciated the qualities of a good performer and entrusted with important work. He was a weak politician, and what kind of politics could there be in Tajikistan in those years, if you do not mean rallies in the squares? Rakhmonov won his most important victory when, with the support of the Soviet army and the Uzbek military, he managed to force out, and in a very bloody way, the armed Tajik opposition from Tajikistan to Afghanistan. And it was a very important milestone on his path to power.”

After being elected president in 1994, Rakhmonov successfully survived armed riots and assassination attempts (in 1997, a grenade was thrown at his motorcade, and in 2001, a terrorist set off explosives near the podium where the head of state spoke). Having defeated the most active oppositionists and competitors, he began to strengthen the vertical of power: for example, he held a referendum on amending the constitution, received the right to run for president in 2006 and hold the presidency for two more 7-year terms.

According to Dubnov, the head of Tajikistan has always relied primarily on those whom he knows well - first they were people from his native Kulyab, and then family members: "He entrusted politics to his brother-in-law, his sister's husband, as well as his daughter Ozoda and son Rustam."

As officially reported, Emomali Rahmon is married to a compatriot, the spouses have 9 children: two sons and 7 daughters. All of them occupy key positions in the country and are connected by marriages with government officials. Son Rustam, for example, led the anti-smuggling department, and then became the mayor of the capital. They say that Emomali Rahmon sees him as a successor - his son allegedly can take the presidential chair in 2020. And in early 2016, Rahmon appointed his daughter Ozoda as head of the presidential administration.

Skillfully maneuvering between the big powers

A number of experts see the merit of Rahmon in the fact that he did not allow Tajikistan to slide into chaos, following the example of the states of North Africa and the Middle East. They say, being a moderately authoritarian leader, he keeps order in a country with a tough hand, which simply does not accept a different style of government.

“You can't compare Tajikistan with Iraq and Libya, the richest oil countries with traditions of independent government,” Dubnov said. — Tajikistan is a very poor country. It has neither oil nor gas. There is also no historical experience of independent state existence. But there is an idea of ​​what kind of power should be on the outskirts of the Soviet empire, and there is an experience of communist party farm building. Perhaps Emomali Rahmon kept his country from chaos, but only because Tajikistan itself was of little interest to anyone from the point of view of big geopolitics.”

However, when China needed some redoubts to protect the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of the PRC from Islamic radicals, the Celestial Empire’s attention to Tajikistan increased dramatically, especially since many Uyghurs live in it. The Chinese began to help Dushanbe, including financially, to strengthen the borders, and were even ready to send their military to Tajikistan. Now Rahmon is skillfully maneuvering between Russia and China: Beijing is ready to help Tajikistan financially, while Moscow provides it with military security and gives Tajik guest workers the opportunity to earn money in the Russian Federation, who make a huge contribution to the country's GDP. Plus, Rahmon skillfully exploits the interest in his country from the United States and India.

Not so long ago, Emomali Rahmon managed to resolve the territorial dispute with China, which lasted as much as 130 years. China, in particular, demanded the return of 28.5 thousand km² of Tajik territory. As a result, the President of Tajikistan ceded 1.1 thousand km² in the Eastern Pamirs. This agreement was appreciated even by the Academic Committee of the European Council on Foreign Relations, which awarded Rahmon the title of "Leader of the 21st century."

Struggled with gold teeth and Slavic surnames

In 2006, during a visit to a rural school, Emomali Rahmon noticed false gold teeth in a school teacher and said: “How can we convince international organizations that we are poor if our rural teachers walk around with gold teeth!” After that, all citizens of the country were ordered to remove gold prostheses.

And in 2007, speaking to representatives of the intelligentsia, the leader of the Tajik nation urged them to return to their traditional cultural roots and use national toponymy. In particular, he announced that he had decided to change his own surname from Rakhmonov to Rakhmon. And besides, he forbade by a special decree to register children in the registry offices whose surnames have the Slavic endings “-ev” and “-ov” (at the same time, only Persian spellings were allowed to be used).

In 2009, Rahmon signed the Law on the State Language, which made Tajik the only language for communication with state authorities, while the country's Constitution proclaimed Russian as the language of interethnic communication. And in 2010, the parliament adopted amendments, according to which all laws and regulations in the official press should be published only in the Tajik language - so Russian was completely excluded from office work. In addition, under Emomali Rahmon, a wave of renaming of Soviet settlements took place in Tajikistan: for example, the city of Chkalovsk became Buston, the Leninabad region - Sughd, villages, mountain peaks and streets were renamed, bearing the names of Russian and Soviet idols - Pushkin, Gogol, Gagarin, etc. .

Rahmon's authoritarian "habits" have certainly become the subject of criticism from the liberal press. “And yet to equate his rule with a cult of personality Niyazov in Turkmenistan, Karimov in Uzbekistan or Kim Jong Un in the DPRK is not necessary, - says Dubnov. — In Tajikistan, there is a relative, compared to the same Turkmenistan, freedom of speech. On the Internet, you can publish opinions there that are quite risky from the point of view of official propaganda. And the Tajiks themselves are much more freedom-loving than their neighbors, and less subject to the shouting of their superiors.”

In 2013, Rahmon was re-elected for the 4th time in the presidential elections. And in 2015, he ratified a law that allowed him to hold the post of head of state for life. After a referendum in 2016, the Constitution was amended to remove the limit on the number of re-elections to the post of head of state.

“There are hypothetical threats to Rahmon, first of all, from his inner circle,” Dubnov believes. - If the president's behavior ceases to suit those who support him today, these people can take some "restrictive measures" against him. But the transfer of power to his son Rustam still looks extremely unlikely. Much more influential is his daughter Ozoda, who, by the way, has a very tense relationship with her brother.