ABSTRACT
Moscow excluded itself from the Middle East by its own volition in August 1990, when it aligned itself with Washington in the condemnation of Iraq’s aggression against Kuwait. The territory was the base for the 19th anti-aircraft defense Army, the 34th air Army and quite a few special military units under Moscow’s direct command. Former Soviet Central Asia is, from the point of view of Moscow’s foreign policy, another part of the troublesome expanded Middle East. The shaky nature of the Tajik regime prompted Moscow to organize a military coalition for the defense of Tajik border with Afghanistan with the participation of all other Central Asian Commonwealth of Independent States republics. In 1996-97, the opposition, frustrated by the unwillingness of Dushanbe’s bosses to make some reasonable deal with it at the negotiating table, increased its military activities inside the republic and across the border from Afghanistan.
