The walls seem to be closing in on Tajikistan. On top of electricity shortages, Dushanbe has been hit by a drastic rail transit rate hike imposed by Uzbekistan, and a potentially devastating increase in energy export tariffs levied by Russia. The Russian tariff increase, which went into effect in early April, has had an immediate inflationary impact. The price of petrol in Tajikistan has shot up 6% already this month, causing the annual inflation rate to exceed 30%.