Dictator Rahmon and Europe

It is hard to say who advised the dictator to travel to Europe – whether it was advisors, financial circumstances, or if he realizes that the Russian budget can no longer be milked.

Photo: Internet

Dictators are generally unpredictable, but one thing they cannot be denied is their sense of self-preservation. When Stalin realized that fulfilling Lenin’s promises to build a “bright future” turned out to be impossible fairy tales, he asked the West to send specialists who built him factories and plants. Of course, Stalin later declared these as his own achievements, but the West began to understand that it was dealing with Soviet con artists.

Does the West understand that Rahmon is the same kind of con artist, but on a smaller scale? That he is a man not elected by anyone, but appointed by the Kremlin as a lifelong leader, because the Kremlin has a task – to maintain its influence over the imperial “underbelly,” and illiterate and greedy representatives of Soviet collective farming can deceive, kill, and imprison the innocent long enough to extend their dictatorial lives.

Rahmon’s current trip to Europe is ceremonial, implying no friendship or cooperation, except that it is only useful for Tajik propaganda, which will spend several months talking about the “world-significant visit” of the Leader of the Nation, about how he was received with honor.

Not with honor, but according to protocol. However, the personal attitude of the French president towards the Tajik dictator was not protocol-based, as can be clearly seen in the photograph where the French president had his hands in his pants pockets, showing who he is dealing with. He cannot afford such behavior with European or American colleagues, but with a dictator – it is necessary. Emmanuel Macron already knew that the European Parliament and the UN demanded that Rahmon release political prisoners.

Oleg Panfilov