Open government comes to Tajikistan. Sort of…

So the Tajiks decided not to bother with blogs or Twitter and go for one of the oldest and most reliable e-communications platform out there: e-mail. According to reports in the local media (in Russian), from now on citizens of Tajikistan, the poorest ex-Soviet republic, could email their concerns – and even personal problems – ...

So the Tajiks decided not to bother with blogs or Twitter and go for one of the oldest and most reliable e-communications platform out there: e-mail.

So the Tajiks decided not to bother with blogs or Twitter and go for one of the oldest and most reliable e-communications platform out there: e-mail.

According to reports in the local media (in Russian), from now on citizens of Tajikistan, the poorest ex-Soviet republic, could email their concerns – and even personal problems – to  the country’s minister of defense (well, as long as they leave their FULL postal address and full background info). His email – vazirmydofia.tj@rambler.ru – would be widely publicized. 

Don’t you think that  their choice of an email provider is a bit weird? Hasn’t it occured to them that it may not be very, umm, secure to get their defense minister online via a free email inbox set up with Rambler, a Russian Web giant?

Evgeny Morozov is a fellow at the Open Society Institute and sits on the board of OSI's Information Program. He writes the Net Effect blog on ForeignPolicy.com

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