Tajik Politicians Debate Selling Major Assets To Russia

Tajikistan's Nurek hydropower station -- still a national asset

DUSHANBE -- The Tajik parliament's lower house has declared that the Tajik aluminum company Talco and the Nurek and Roghun hydroelectric power plants should remain under state ownership.

Some Tajik politicians have recently suggested selling Talco, the country's largest industrial company, to Russia.

Parliament member Hoji Akbar Turajonzoda told RFE/RL's Tajik Service on February 25 that selling the company and officially recognizing the Georgian breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia would improve relations with Moscow.

But parliament member Ismoil Talbakov asserted that those three companies will never be privatized.