E-MAIL THIS LINK
To: 

Russia's economic problems threaten stability in Central Asia
Interesting take on Russia's economic problem written from the perspective of an Azeri news outlet. Useful backgrounder with a WoT related twist at the end.
Difficult economic situation in Russia in December 2014 became one of the most discussed topics in Russian media and Russian society. Nevertheless, the fall of ruble can no longer be Russia’s internal problem only and it is a major blow to the countries which are in some way associated with Russia.

First of all, this concerns Central Asia, the relative well-being of which during the years of independence was mainly ensured with the money transfers of migrant workers in Russia.

For instance, 1.23 million of 8-million population of Tajikistan worked in Russia as of 2013, according to the data from the Federal Migration Service of Russia. This is the official data which doesn’t include those who entered Russia earlier and those who have dual Russian-Tajik citizenship. Thus, the real number of Tajik migrants working in Russia can turn out to be much greater. The inflow of money transfers from Russia to Tajikistan stood at $3.587 billion in 2013, which accounts for 50 percent of the country’s GDP.
Posted by: Steve White 2014-12-27
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=407053