Russia sees Tajikistan as the “Cultural Fortress of Eurasia”
By Abdul Naser Noorzad, security and geopolitics researcher, exclusively for Sangar
In the world of politics, sometimes a single gift carries a meaning and a message deeper than a hundred diplomatic statements. When Vladimir Putin, President of Russia, during his recent visit to Dushanbe, presented Emomali Rahmon, the President of Tajikistan, with a painting titled “Tajik Friends” by Max Birshtein and a book on the history of the Tajiks, this seemingly cultural gesture was in fact a precise geopolitical and security signal.
Through this act, Putin spoke in the language that represents the soft power of the East in Central Asia: the Persian language. In the framework of Russia’s cultural and civilizational security doctrine, Persian is viewed as a bridge among the great civilizations of the region stretching from the Caspian Sea to Badakhshan. This choice gains even greater significance at a time when the Anglo-Western axis and its allies in Kabul and Islamabad are pursuing an explicit anti-Persian project, aimed at diminishing the influence of the Persian-speaking world.
The anti-Persian campaign is, in reality, part of a cultural and security engineering strategy designed to erase the Tajik element from the future political equations of Afghanistan and weaken the civilizational links of Central Asia. The Taliban, serving as the executive arm of this strategy with tacit support from London and Washington, are enforcing a policy of “linguistic wall-building” against Persian speakers, seeking to isolate Tajiks from their historical-cultural network. This represents a form of “identity engineering”, the ultimate goal of which is geopolitical control through the severing of cultural and linguistic ties.
In this environment, Putin’s gesture serves as a soft yet intelligent response to this project. The Kremlin has fully grasped that, in the new Great Game, geography is no longer defined only by borders, but it is also shaped by languages, identities, and civilizational memories. The Persian language, as the oldest civilizational axis of this region, holds the potential to become an instrument of “legitimate cultural influence” across Central Asia and Afghanistan.
Building on this understanding, Russi, through Tajikistan, is now reviving cultural ties that could form a soft Eurasian belt of influence countering the neo-colonial agenda of the West. Putin recognizes that, in the Afghan theater, the Tajik community with over 47 percent of the population and deep historical and cultural roots is a decisive factor in any power equation. Unlike the West, he views Tajiks not as an “ethnic minority,” but as a “civilizational majority,” with the Persian language serving as the key to their political and identity survival.
Strategically, this gesture can be understood as part of Russia’s “cultural diplomacy”, which seeks to establish a soft balance against the linguistic and ideological offensives of the Western axis. Putin’s gift to Rahmon effectively reaffirms Tajikistan’s role as the “cultural fortress of Eurasia” and as the guardian of Persian civilization in the region. Alongside Russia’s military presence at the 201st base in Dushanbe, this cultural layer significantly deepens Moscow’s soft strategic depth in the region.
From Moscow’s perspective, Tajikistan is not merely a southern security ally it is the front line of a civilizational struggle between two discourses: Persian diplomacy versus English diplomacy. While the West, through its educational and media networks, attempts to marginalize the Persian language and culture in Afghanistan, Russia aims to elevate Persian as the axis of civilizational dialogue across Eurasia.
Thus, the “Diplomacy of the Persian Language” has emerged as a key component of Russia’s soft power strategy. This diplomacy not only strengthens Moscow’s cultural ties with Tajikistan but also paves the way for intellectual and functional convergence between Russia and Afghanistan through the Tajik segment of that country.
Ultimately, Putin’s symbolic gift redrew a new map of civilizational balance one in which the Persian language is not merely a cultural heritage, but a geopolitical instrument of Russia in the strategic landscapes of Central Asia and Afghanistan. This is where Persian diplomacy, calm and silent yet profound and decisive, begins to cast its shadow over the region’s political and security paradigm.
