The opinion was expressed at a Wednesday press conference by Husrav Goibov, deputy head of the CIS department at the Tajik Foreign Ministry.

"The unilateral decision made by Uzbekistan to leave the Central Asian Unified Energy System runs counter to the principles of neighborliness and is politically motivated," he said.

In summer, Tajikistan has surplus electricity which it delivers to Uzbekistan. In exchange it receives power in winter when it suffers from an acute energy shortage. Besides, in winter electricity from Turkmenistan is transmitted to Tajikistan via Uzbekistan.

"Uzbekistan's withdrawal from the UES automatically means that electricity imports from Turkmenistan will become impossible for Tajikistan. The same can be said about the exports of our electricity in summer," Alexei Silantyev, deputy head of the state- owned energy company Barki Tochik said at the same press conference.

He added that this winter Tajikistan expects an acute shortage of electricity.

Every winter the electricity deficit in Tajikistan amounts to some 4 billion kilowatts. As a result, all of the country's towns and villages have power supplies for 4-7 hours a day, at best.

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