Tajikistan Holds Russian Soldier over Woman Murder
Tajik authorities have arrested a Russian soldier over the murder of a young woman at a Russian military base in the Central Asian nation, a police source said Tuesday.
The 26-year-old officer, Ivan Sherbakov, stationed at Russia's huge military base near Tajikistan's capital Dushanbe, is currently being held by Tajik authorities in connection to the killing of Shoira Jabborova.
The source said Jabborova was invited by Sherbakov to an officer's dormitory on the base where the murder took place on November 5, the source said.
Tajik police said Senior Lieutenant Sherbakov said he had no memory of the evening as he was drunk.
Tajikistan protested the murder in a diplomatic note and demanded Moscow "take necessary measures to ensure similar actions by servicemen at the Russian military base in Tajikistan will not occur."
Russian military officials at the base confirmed to AFP that they were cooperating with police in the investigation.
The murder is not the first connected to the base in the impoverished country, which shares a 1,300 kilometer border with Afghanistan.
In August two soldiers stationed there were convicted to prison sentences of 17 and 13 years by a Russian military court for their murder of a Tajik taxi driver last year.
The 201st military base is Moscow's largest military outpost in the country and the Kremlin has voiced concern about fighting over the border in Afghanistan.
Tajikistan remains strongly dependent on Russia economically with remittances sent home by migrants working there equating to roughly 40 percent of GDP in 2014.
Source: Agence France Presse
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