Family Perks
In Tajikistan, resorts belonging to the ruling family get tax-free facelifts.
In Tajikistan, resorts belonging to the ruling family get tax-free facelifts.
Tajikistan is not an easy place to do business — but it’s possible if you’re willing to pay up. Here’s how a mining company listed in London paid a “success fee” to the son-in-law of the country’s president in exchange for permission to mine gold.
The founder of Faroz, one of Tajikistan’s most successful companies, had no intention of feuding with the regime. But after the president’s son-in-law took the company from him, he decided to speak up. The consequences would be fatal.
It sometimes seems like Tajikistan’s longtime president does little else aside from cutting red ribbons. He praises “patriotic businessmen” at the unveiling of project after project — but somehow neglects to mention that they all belong to his son-in-law.
Authoritarian, impoverished Tajikistan once boasted one of the most effective opposition parties among the former Soviet republics. Then, in just a matter of months, it was gone.
Nikolai Nikolaev has portrayed himself as a friend of the Tajikistani opposition, a human rights activist, and a vocal critic of Russian government. So why do activists he befriends keep disappearing?
Sharofiddin Gadoev was a successful businessman, then an opposition activist, then a refugee in hiding. This is the story of his kidnapping in Moscow, his torture at the hands of Tajikistani authorities, and his escape.