Russians and Turkmen in row over citizenship

TURKMENISTAN: Turkmenistan accused a leading Russian parliamentarian yesterday of using "dirty lies" to discredit a plan to abolish the nations' dual-citizenship agreement, a move which Moscow says could spark an exodus of tens of thousands of Russians from the authoritarian central Asian state.

Russians in Turkmenistan have until Sunday to opt for Russian citizenship and face growing problems accessing work and education, or choose a Turkmen passport and endure international isolation under a regime that human rights groups call one of the most oppressive in the world.

Turkmenistan's Foreign Ministry criticised Mr Dmitri Rogozin, head of the Foreign Affairs Committee in Russia's lower house of parliament, after he denounced Turkmenistan's unilateral abolition of dual citizenship and said Moscow had evidence linking the nation's leaders with drug smuggling and international terrorism.

The ministry said Mr Rogozin had used "information from dubious sources" to "fabricate insinuations using dirty lies" about Turkmenistan.

Turkmen leader Mr Saparmurat Niyazov, the country's president for life and self-declared Turkmenbashi - or Father of all Turkmens - ordered the country's state-controlled media to launch a campaign of positive stories on its dual citizens to combat Mr Rogozin's "propagandistic actions".

"There have been overt attempts to discredit Turkmenistan's policy, made in a most unseemly manner incompatible with the norms of international etiquette," said Mr Niyazov, who has renamed the month of April and the year 2003 after his late mother.

Last month Mr Rogozin, who is considered close to the Kremlin, said Russia was studying "alarming information" that Mr Niyazov's regime had supplied the Taliban with fuel just before US troops invaded in 2001, and that the country's leaders were involved in drug trafficking "and effectively providing support for international terrorism".

Russia says some 100,000 people have dual citizenship in Turkmenistan, and fears a flood of returnees to Russia around the Sunday deadline.

Mr Niyazov, who says only 47 people legally hold dual citizenship, has been increasingly wary of Russian-linked Turkmen after an alleged assassination attempt last November that he says was masterminded by exiled opposition figures in Moscow.

He signed a protocol abolishing dual citizenship with Russian President Vladimir Putin in April, alongside a huge, 25-year deal to supply Turkmen gas to Russia.

Russia's parliament has not ratified the protocol, but rights advocates in Moscow have accused Mr Putin of selling out the rights of Russians in Turkmenistan in return for gas.