In another round of truly awful news for Tajiks, two former Soviet nuclear waste sites located in the northern Sughd region are not adequately sealed and will not be in the near future. Some of the dust has been escaping out of these mounds of waste and contaminating water and soil.
So far, the dust has been seaping out only a little bit, resulting in a slightly higher rate of cancer and other diseases. But remember that Tajikistan sits on a fault line and there is no barrier between the waste and the surrounding area if it were to be unsecured. For now, heavy rains and wind cause the dust to spread all over the region, even reaching the Syr Darya. There are no plans to seal the sites nor any money for them. It would cost hundreds of millions of dollars for the poorest country in Central Asia to secure the nuclear waste left there by the Soviet Union.
A few months ago, I wrote about the early stages of the conflict in Ukraine through the lens of Sun Tzu’s The Art of War. While it appears likely that the war will carry on into the foreseeable future, enough time has passed for us to make an honest assessment of each side’s relative […]
The Ukrainian Army has made dramatic strides in the last few weeks. Ukraine’s tactical commanders have outfoxed their Russian counterparts, and by issuing a feint towards the south the UA has been able to earn substantial gains in the north of their country. The impact of these efforts have been compounded by the steady stream […]
In mid-May the Irish political party, Sinn Féin, won the plurality of seats in the Northern Ireland Assembly. Many American readers might not fully understand the significance of Sinn Féin’s political victory- but rest assured that subjects of the United Kingdom and a wide range of political movements the world over have heard the message […]
The first wave of the Russian offensive in Ukraine has fallen short of Russian autocrat Vladmir Putin’s ambitions. Most analysts deduced that Putin had hoped to achieve a decapitation strike of the Ukrainian government- taking Kiev and replacing Ukrainian President Vladimir Zolinski with a pro-Kremlin voice. Kiev has been threatened repeatedly through the course of […]
On the weekend of March 26th, the notorious MS-13 gang went on a massive killing spree in El Salvador which left more than 70 people dead by Sunday. Even for a country where powerful gangs hold massive sway, this recent tragedy stands out considering that it was the bloodiest day on record since the civil […]
