DUSHANBE, February 2, 2015, Asia-Plus -- Prosecutors in Tajikistan have charged a Russian officer they say beat a man near the 201st military base''s unit in the southern city of Kulob.

A local official told Radio Liberty’s Tajik Service on February 2 that the suspect, identified as Captain Chemizov, is suspected of severely beating a waiter at a restaurant in Kulob last week.

Last summer, two Russian officers from the 201st military base''s unit in Dushanbe, the capital, were arrested on suspicion of killing a local man, Rahimjon Teshaboyev.  That investigation is continuing.

There are about 7,000 Russian soldiers deployed at three different sites that make up the Russian base in Tajikistan.

A soldier at Russia''s large base in Armenia, another ex-Soviet republic, is suspected in the brutal slaying of seven members of a single family near the facility last month.

The massacre sparked days of protests in Armenia.