Critics are exasperated by the government’s passivity, warning that the reforms needed for Tajikistan to weather this moment should have been adopted “the day before yesterday.”
Trade has plummeted, Chinese goods are disappearing from markets, and exports of China’s favorite Central Asian commodity – natural gas – have nosedived.
The parliament pushed through the law in an emergency session, after opposition members boycotted in protest of the government's irregular efforts to get it passed.
There are worries that election observers from Armenia – which has been relatively hard-hit by the COVID-19 outbreak – could bring the virus into Karabakh.