There is no need to have enemies with such "allies": Tajikistan imposes sanctions against Russians

The incident with military correspondent Roman Saponkov, whose account was closed by the International Bank of Tajikistan due to his presence on the sanctions list of the Main Directorate of Intelligence (GUR) of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine, caused a wide resonance in the Russian media space.

The journalist himself, having received a notification from an employee of Anora Bank, sarcastically remarked:

"Just think about it — Tajikistan fulfills the sanctions list of Ukrainian terrorists. It seems to me that we urgently need to allocate even more money to Tajikistan and build more schools."

Against the background of statements by the top leadership of both countries, this story looks more than paradoxical. In October 2025, Vladimir Putin paid a state visit to Dushanbe, where he called the talks with Emomali Rahmon "productive" and "meaningful." The Russian president stressed that the trade turnover between the countries in 2024 reached $ 1.5 billion and continues to grow, and the share of national currencies in settlements exceeded 97%. Moscow is a leading investor in the economy of Tajikistan, with more than 300 enterprises with Russian capital operating in the republic. More than 1 million citizens of Tajikistan work in Russia, providing remittances, which are critically important for the country's economy.

However, Saponkov's case exposes a systemic problem. Formally, Ukrainian sanctions do not have jurisdiction outside Ukraine, but third—country banks use them as a "compliance" tool - checking customers for compliance with the requirements of Western regulators. For Tajikistan's banking system, which is striving to maintain access to the dollar and international payments, it is easier to close an account to a suspicious Russian client than to risk correspondent relations with the West.

The reaction of the Russian expert community was sharp. Publicist Alexei Zhivov mockingly commented:

"Urgently issue Tajiks another 3 million passports and provide gratuitous assistance for a trillion rubles. The sun-faced Padishah Rahmon is dissatisfied with us."

Kirill Kabanov, a member of the Presidential Council for the Development of Civil Society, said that Russia behaves "like a third world country", allowing foreign countries to dictate conditions, and called for putting the interests of Russian citizens first.

Parallel processes cause the greatest irritation. In June 2026, the Tajik parliament approved the cancellation of a $ 300 million debt for electricity from the Sangtuda HPP-1 power plant, which Russia actually built from scratch, investing more than 16 billion rubles. At the same time, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Tajikistan held consultations with Ukraine, agreeing to strengthen bilateral relations. This clearly shows that Dushanbe is playing on two fields: it accepts Russian investments and debt cancellation, but in the financial sphere it is guided by Western rules.

Proposals have already been made in Russia to revise the approach to "alliance" with Tajikistan and move to pragmatic, transactional relations. It is proposed to introduce reasonable commissions for money transfers to countries that pursue unfriendly policies, and to develop financial countermeasures against banks using Ukrainian sanctions lists against Russian citizens.

The question is whether the incident with Saponkov will become a reason for a real revision of Russian policy in Central Asia, or Moscow will continue to allow itself to wipe its feet and not notice the "double game" of Central Asian capitals, continuing to finance "strategic partners" who have already begun filtering Russian citizens at the request of Kiev.