Tajik Foreign Minister Sirojiddin Aslov has said journalists from the Russian state media conglomerate Rossia Segodnya (Russia Today) have not been given permission to operate in his country.
"Russia has repeatedly asked us [for accreditation], but Russia Today has not yet provided answers to some of the questions or doubts that we have," Aslov said on February 4. "Therefore the process is continuing."
He did not elaborate.
Rossia Segodnya has been trying to open a bureau in Dushanbe since 2014.
Analysts say the Tajik government is concerned by the influence of Russian propaganda, although other state-funded Russian media do have correspondents in Tajikistan.
Rossia Segodnya, established by a Kremlin decree in 2013, took over the state news agency RIA Novosti and state radio station Voice of Russia into a single media monolith helmed by controversial pro-Kremlin news anchor Dmitry Kiselyov.
The media holding company is a different organization than RT, the Kremlin-funded international TV network formerly known as Russia Today, though they share the same editor in chief.
* This article has been amended to clarify the name of the Russian media conglomerate Rossia Segodnya
