The idea of bringing teachers from Russia to Tajikistan has been on the agenda for years.

EurasiaNet.org notes that President Emomali Rahmon produced fantastic visions in 2013, when he declared that his country could do with 4,000 Russian teachers. Without ever explaining how his government would pay for it, he vowed to provide all the necessary accommodation and salaries.  Within a year, he had knocked off a zero, dropping his projection to 400 teachers.

Now that this idea is finally being tested out with a few dozen teachers, it is Russia footing most of the bill. Tajikistan provides accommodation, but only about $90 a month in pay — the same as what locals get.  The Russian government reportedly provides another $1,000 monthly per teacher.

The participants in the pilot project have been deployed exclusively for now at state-run schools for gifted children. These institutions recruit children from all over the country and have living quarters attached.

There was initially talk of placing the Russian teachers in regular schools, but the group was swiftly commandeered by the Education Ministry. Although the schools where they work are purportedly Tajikistan’s premier educational establishments, some of the teachers, particularly those responsible for science subjects, have quietly grumbled about the lack of basic resources. Staff at schools often have to share a single textbook, passing it along to another at class time. And along with the teachers, Moscow sent tens of thousands of books in Russian to Tajikistan, but few are available when and where the teachers need them.

Authorities in Russia make no secret that assistance exercises like these are potentially valuable tools in the country’s soft power armory, similar in some ways to the U.S.-funded Peace Corps volunteer program, although the scale for now is much more modest.

Last August, as the participants of the pilot project mustered in Moscow, Valentina Matviyenko, the chair of Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, reportedly told them that “your work is in effect that of goodwill ambassadors, envoys of Russian knowledge and culture.”  The initiative was provisionally projected for just one year, but there are already plans to extend by at least one more, although there are no figures on how many teachers will be involve next time around.

Moscow is engaged in a long-term if often faltering exercise in shoring up its cultural and educational influence in Tajikistan.  There are currently now 29 schools in the country providing instruction entirely in Russian. Another 126 schools offer a combination of teaching in both Russian and Tajik. On April 5, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a meeting in Moscow with his Tajik counterpart, Sirojiddin Aslov, that there are plans to build another five Russian-language schools in Tajikistan, but he provided no timeframe.

Many Tajik nationals reportedly described the effort to bring over Russian teachers as a much-needed remedy.

One of such Russian teachers is Emil Burkhanov, who lives in a two-bedroom apartment in Khorog, the capital of the Gorno Badakhshan Region (GBAO), with his wife and two sons.

The 37-year-old Burkhanov was one of 28 teachers dispatched to Tajikistan by the Russian government at the start of this academic year, part of a pilot project to assist a struggling, cash-strapped education system. It is the first initiative of its kind in Tajikistan since the fall of the Soviet Union.

The principal at the Khorog school, Shodigul Qonunzoda, said she is delighted with Burkhanov and that he is filling a yawning gap.

“The problem is that everybody can speak Russian, but they all have an accent and make mistakes.  So when they asked me what teacher I needed, I said a Russian language teacher,” Qonunzoda said.

Burkhanov has reportedly broadened his palette though, expanding his remit to encouraging his students, who are in their early teens, to think hard about future careers and even what businesses they might be able to set up in their local community.

Unfortunately for them, Burkhanov is looking to relocate as he feels that Khorog is too remote a location for a family man.  “My elderly mother is in Tatarstan, so I really need to be closer to a big city so I can visit her [more easily] during the holidays,” he said. “It is good for single people, but it is tough for somebody with a family.”

His colleagues elsewhere in the country teach a variety of subjects, including math, chemistry, biology and computer science.