Tajik president Rahmon welcomes Russia's Putin for state visit

Tajik president Emomali Rahmon welcomed Vladimir Putin in Dushanbe Wednesday, kicking off the Russian president's three-day visit. Putin is set to meet on Thursday with the heads of Central Asia's five ex-Soviet states. A Kremlin spokesman told Russian news agencies that Putin is also set to meet Azerbaijan's President Ilham Aliyev on Thursday, following months of frostiness in Moscow-Baku relations.