During the Soviet Union, Dushanbe and Tashkent used to have the tightest economic cooperation within the Central Asian region. When the Soviet Union collapsed, the Central Asian republics immediately felt its effect in terms of the economic recession, infrastructural disintegration and political tensions. After the civil war in Tajikistan in 1992-1995, the bilateral relations between Tashkent and Dushanbe started to deteriorate steadily and gradually reached a very low level, with minimum trade turnover, forcefully imposed visaregime and restricted road, air and railway connection.