russia Losing Control Over Its Own Agriculture and Mineral Resources

Tajik farmers are preparing to grow oilseeds on russian land – negotiations on this project are already underway. According to Tajikistan’s Minister of Industry and New Technologies Sherali Kabira, the idea is intended to keep Tajik processing plants busy and increase vegetable oil production in the country. Simply put, Tajikistan lacks sufficient arable land of its own, but has ample capacity to process raw materials.

Just a few years ago, Tajikistan had been purchasing up to 300,000 tons of oilseeds from russia annually. However, rising logistics costs have made such trade unprofitable. At the same time, russia’s inability to make efficient use of its own agricultural land has prompted the Tajik side to propose a new format of cooperation to moscow: farmers from Tajikistan will cultivate russian land, grow the necessary crops, and send the harvested crops back home for processing.

This situation vividly illustrates the consequences of russia’s self-destructive foreign policy, which has led the country into international isolation and turned it into a raw materials appendage for its neighbors. A telling example is China, which has suspended negotiations on the construction of the “power of siberia–2” gas pipeline, taking advantage of the opportunity to dictate terms and gas prices favorable to itself to moscow. Moreover, Chinese companies are actively extracting minerals on russia’s territory to meet the needs of their own economy. And the siberian forests have long served as a raw material base for China’s wood processing industry.