The embassy of Uzbekistan in Tajikistan has released a statement defending the ongoing stoppage of Tajikistan-destined freight trains as an innocent side-effect of repairs being made to the railroad, but neweurasia’s Dushanbe isn’t convinced. He picks through the statement with his analytical scalpel. “It seems Ragnarok Roghun-style is threatening to expand beyond just Tajikistan and Uzbekistan…”

neweurasia’s Dushanbe offers his brother an interesting birthday gift, only to find himself thrust in the middle of the Roghun dam controversy. It seems that the government’s enormous fundraising campaign has worked too well, and may not only be monetarily crippling Tajikistan, but even slowly undermining its very raison d’être, as well.

“Don’t ever say that Tajikistan is a bad place for investments,” writes neweurasia’s Dushanbe about a new highway toll company with illicit family ties to the president of Tajikistan. “In fact, it’s a paradise where you can make money out of nothing.” Public unrest is mounting over what is widely perceived as price-gauging on Tajikistan’s most important highway.

Tajikistan’s President Rahmon is seeking to ban mobile phones from the country. The government claims it’s for reasons of health and taxes, but neweurasia’s Dushanbe is suspicious. But whatever the truth, he wonders whether Rahmon will be successful or become “a Don Quixote trying to fight cellular signal towers”.

Tajikistan’s President Rahmon has given his annual address to the Parliament in which he addresses the plethora of challenges faced by the nation, as well as the potential dangers of Kyrgyzstan’s recent uprising. neweurasia’s Dushanbe listens in from his apartment bloc and checks the pulse of his neighbors to see whether Tajikistan’s tulips are bloody and ready to bloom, or wilting away.

In the eyes of some, Rahmon’s Traditions, Celebrations and Rituals Regulation Law of 2007 was a cultural revolution, equivalent to that implemented by Ataturk and Reza Shah Pahlavi. But neweurasia’s Dushanbe wonders just how penetrating it might have been. He talks with an academic and one of Rahmon’s professional party crashers to find out.

Nematullo Botaqoziev, a human rights activist on the run from Kyrgyzstan, has been detained by authorities in Tajikistan. Whether he will be extradited to his home country remains unclear because, according to neweurasia’s Dushanbe, Botaqoziev has now become a piece in a much larger regional game: “Opposition and human rights activists from one Central Asian country who are arrested or detained in another one often find themselves the pawns of regional relations,” he writes.

Tajik and Uzbek officials traded barbs during this weekend’s security conference in Dushanbe. The argument concerned freight train shipments for Tajikistan that have been stalled on Uzbek territory, but as neweurasia’s Dushanbe explains, the real reason is the Roghun dam project. Are the two countries steaming toward conflict? Their disagreement is now involving major players, including the United States, which may raise the stakes, but also point the way toward peaceful resolution.

The Tajikistan opposition is furious at the recent parliamentary election results and is planning massive protest actions across the country. However, neweurasia’s Dushanbe, who has been following the controversy, advises caution: the opposition must very careful not to open themselves to accusations of fomenting a Color Revolution.

Opposition parties and candidates in Tajikistan are saying that the parliamentary election was tainted by many irregularities, elicit fraud, and a general lack of transparency. neweurasia’s Dushanbe relates several anecdotes of fraud, intimidation, and manipulation, including some eerily Soviet-style tricks.