The next time you are stopped by police in Tajikistan and hauled over the coals for having a bag of white powder in your car, the chances are you’ve been trying to smuggle flour over the Khatlon county line.
That's thanks to the latest ruse Tajik authorities have resorted to in their unconvincing attempts to forestall the incipience of food shortages.
Khatlon Province chairman Ghaybullo Avzalov announced this week that police and customs official have been ordered to forbid the export of grain and flour from his Afghan-bordering fiefdom, which is said to be the poorest region in Tajikistan, to other parts of the country and, of course, abroad.
Tajik news agency Asia-Plus cites Avzalov as saying that a lack of deliveries to railway stations has caused a deficit in flour supplies. That is to say, Uzbekistan has been barring trainloads of supplies from coming into Tajikistan, thereby driving this already unfortunate country further to the edge of despair.
Avzalov says that stopping grain from leaving his region will prevent spikes in prices for the commodity, which seems like a reasonable position.
And then he had to ruin it all by saying: “It is not the first time the president of our country has advised every family to put aside a two-year reserve of flour or grain.”
Two years. It sounds like Emomali Rakhmon is planning a Long March or a Great Leap.
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