The Russia-Ukraine crisis is squeezing Central Asian economies

People queue outside the Tajik embassy in Moscow in Russia, where the economy depends on foreign workers and where their absence during the coronavirus pandemic weighed on Russia's recovery [File: Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg]

On the last Monday of every month, Moscow-based Faridun Abdulloev wires half of his monthly pay to his wife in Dushanbe, the capital of Tajikistan. A mid-level manager at a construction firm, Abdulloev is usually able to send across $500 — enough to cover his family’s household expenses, his son’s private school fee, and a monthly installment on a home loan.

But in late January, the 34-year-old worriedly called his wife before transferring money. The Russian rouble had crashed 8 percent against the United States dollar since December and 15 percent since October — all even as prices in Moscow have climbed steeply in recent months. He would be able to send home only $450, he told her. Then, he shared a deeper fear with her. “I told her things might get so bad that I might have to come back,” he recalled in a phone interview with Al Jazeera.