RFE/RL’s Tajik Service is a trusted source of local news, attracting audiences with compelling reporting on issues not otherwise covered by Tajikistan’s state-run media.
RFE/RL spotlights five Central Asian athletes who have turned adversity into triumph. From a paralyzed man turned ultramarathoner to a blind Paralympian and a Premier League soccer pioneer, these remarkable sportspeople have shown how resilience and courage can transcend barriers and inspire others.
Living next to the Chinese-owned Zijin mines, villagers near Bor in eastern Serbia and Panjakent in western Tajikistan face the same threat: poisoned air, degraded farmland, and no recourse. At the same time their governments deepen ties with Beijing.
Villages near Bor in Serbia and Panjakent in Tajikistan share a growing concern: pollution from Chinese-owned mines. While Belgrade and Dushanbe welcome Beijing’s investment, locals fear for their land and air -- while the mines' owner, Zijin, denies harming the environment.
A year after the Crocus City Hall terror attack, Central Asian migrants in Russia face growing harassment, legal pressure, and violence. Rights groups report increased profiling, forced recruitment, and xenophobic attacks.
Central Asian migrants in Russia have met increased harassment and violence since four Tajik men were arrested for the deadly terror attack on Moscow's Crocus City Hall on March 22, 2024.
The Tajik Supreme Court has delivered guilty verdicts in a controversial high-profile treason case, handing lengthy prison terms to former senior government officials and politicians who were accused of plotting to overthrow authoritarian President Emomali Rahmon.
In a new clampdown on independent media, Tajikistan has jailed a veteran journalist for criticizing regional officials, while another reporter faces 17 years in prison on undisclosed charges.
Tajikistan has detained thousands of faith healers and fortune tellers in an ongoing government clampdown, with the president praising the police raids. But many Tajiks say the government should instead tackle more pressing issues, such as unemployment and a shortage of electricity.
A private firm with ties to Tajikistan's ruling family was awarded an opaque government contract to register mobile devices brought into the Central Asian nation from abroad, an RFE/RL investigation has found.
On December 3, a large, apparently military drone, fell in the village of Sharora, near the Tajik capital, Dushanbe. Residents said it hit an electrical power line and fell to the ground without exploding. RFE/RL obtained exclusive footage from witnesses, who reported that no one was hurt.
Police and security officials have cordoned off a large area near Dusanbe after a drone resembling a military unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) crashed in a nearby town in a region where there are both Tajik and Russian military bases.
Tajik authorities claim they have uncovered a plot to overthrow the government with the help of an unnamed foreign government and 3,000 militants “from abroad.” But many are skeptical the eight public figures on trial for the alleged plot are guilty.
Popular Tajik MMA fighter and blogger Chorshanbe Chorshanbiev, who was sentenced in 2022 to 8 1/2 years in prison on charges he and his supporters call politically motivated, has received an additional four-year term for his involvement in a prison fight.
One Chinese national was killed and five others, four of them Chinese, were injured in a cross-border attack in Tajikistan's Zarbuzi Gorge, two sources close to a Tajik investigation told RFE/RL's Tajik Service on November 18.
Eight former top officials, politicians, and public figures in Tajikistan have gone on trial behind closed doors on charges of plotting to forcibly seize power, calling for mass disorder, and inciting hatred.
Tajik opposition activist Dilmurod Ergashev was reportedly taken into custody by authorities as he disembarked a plane in Dushanbe after being deported by Germany hours earlier.
Tajik opposition activist Dilmurod Ergashev attempted to commit suicide before being deported from Germany to Tajikistan, The Insider investigative group reported on November 6, citing self-exiled Tajik opposition activist Sharofiddin Gadoev.
An administrative court in Germany has ordered the deportation of Dilmurod Ergashev, a Tajik opposition political activist, despite significant concerns about the risk of his detention and torture upon return to Tajikistan.
People in Tajikistan’s remote Yaghnob Valley fear their mother tongue will become extinct if not taught at school. One of the oldest languages in the world, Yaghnobi is spoken by about 500 people in the valley. But with no schools there, the children are taken to boarding schools to study in Tajik.
A court in Dushanbe has sentenced leader of the opposition Group 24, which has been sharply critical of the government, and another group member to lengthy prison sentences for "extremism."
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