FREEFORUM

New Steppe Investigative Network report: "Fences and Fuel: The Contracts behind Talas Air Base".

Summary, as neutral as I can make it: companies linked to Maj. Gen. Ruslan Toktarov held diesel supply contracts at the air base. That is what the report says. It does NOT prove smuggling, theft or anything else. Everything after this post is rumour. Say it anyway, but carefully.

I live on the base road. I have counted tankers since 2017, for my own reasons (I like trucks). A normal week: 30 to 40 in. Some weeks more tankers go out full than came in full. I don't know what that means. I only know how to count.

The report is careful, which is why it matters. A contract is not a crime. But supply contracts at a base, held by companies linked to the commander of the force that guards the base's outer perimeter, would be called a conflict of interest in any country that has that phrase in its dictionary.

For the hundredth time: not THAT Ruslan. I don't even have a car.

HEARD: the Americans are furious and will cancel all the contracts by the end of the year.

Bookkeeper's note: logged.

I wrote to my congressman's office to ask whether American contracting rules apply to fuel suppliers at Talas Air Base. I received a form letter. I am now sending them a feedback form about their form letter.

Temir sending a feedback form to Congress is the most diaspora thing that has ever happened on this forum.

Diesel in Chatkal: half again the Talas price. A base drinks a lot of diesel. Diesel walks. I already said this in another thread.

Up here we know the soodagers' trucks by their sound. Some of them carry papers nobody in our villages could ever get. I do not say whose papers. I say only that the papers are very good.

WE WILL BE WRITING ABOUT FUEL. WE ARE COLLECTING SOURCES. WHAT WE CANNOT PROVE, WE WILL SAY WE CANNOT PROVE.

Update for anyone counting with me. Last week, tankers out: 51. In: 33. Times, plates (first two letters only), direction, all in my notebook. Maybe they take empty ones out full of air.

PLEASE DO NOT POST THE NOTEBOOK. SUMMARISE THE NOTEBOOK.

Summary: more out than in.

Year-end bookkeeping. The Americans did not cancel anything, the contracts are still there as far as anybody can tell.

cousins_wife_says: 2.5 / 7.