Tajik authorities have questioned the mother of prominent opposition politician Sharofiddin Gadoev who now lives in the Netherlands, and Gadoev has asserted it was done on Russia’s behalf.
Oyisha Abdulloeva, 72, said security officers interviewed her at her home in the southwestern city of Farkhor on August 16, asking about Gadoev’s personal habits, including whether he used drugs, consumed tobacco, or drank alcohol.
Tajik authorities have not officially commented on the case, and it remained unclear what specific security department was responsible.
Sharofiddin Gadoev, a 37-year-old founder of the opposition movement Group 24, said he believed the interview was prompted by Russia’s intelligence agencies, due to his critical views on Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
"Tajik authorities are willing to initiate a new case against me in Russia to create obstacles during my travels abroad," Gadoev told RFE/RL. “Besides Russia is interested in suppressing democracy in Tajikistan.”
Gadoev, who fled Tajikistan in the early 2010s, has accused Tajik authorities of seizing his business assets. While in exile, he established the Movement for Reforms and Development of Tajikistan and co-founded the National Alliance, a coalition of opposition groups abroad.
In February 2019, Gadoev unexpectedly appeared in Dushanbe. After two weeks, he returned to Europe with the help of Western countries, and later claimed he had been kidnapped in Moscow and forcibly taken to Tajikistan.
One of the other co-founders of Group 24, Umarali Kuvvatov, was later killed in Turkey.
Dozens of Tajik opposition figures and activists living in European countries are wanted by Dushanbe on charges of "terrorism" and "extremism."
President Emomali Rahmon, who has run the Central Asian nation for almost 30 years, has been criticized by international human rights groups over his administration's alleged disregard for independent media, religious freedoms, civil society, and political pluralism.