Russia has warned that a dispute between Moscow and Dushanbe over the status of a new Russian international airport may lead to the suspension of all flights to Tajikistan.
Russia's Transport Ministry said on November 3 that it would suspend flights to Tajikistan from November 8 unless Tajik aviation authorities change their position on the Zhukovsky airport near Moscow.
Zhukovsky International Airport was officially opened in May 2016.
Dushanbe is calling for a revision of existing bilateral agreements on mutual air flights, saying that Zhukovsky is Moscow’s fourth international airport and that it has increased the number of flights from Moscow to Tajikistan.
“We need to protect the interests of our air companies,” Rahmon Yusuf Azim of Tajikistan's Transport Ministry told RFE/RL.
Russian Transport Ministry officials insist that the Zhukovsky airport is not under Moscow’s authority but of the town of Ramenskoye.
