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04/10/2006:

"Kazakstan and Uzbekistan Make Up"

...In the Nineties, Central Asia’s two big states developed along different routes. Kazakstan implemented economic reforms, allowed a degree of political freedom, and remained closely allied with Moscow while also inviting western engagement in its lucrative oil industry.

Uzbekistan attracted much less investment, not least because it chose to avoid political and economic reform. At the same time it grew apart from Russia, trying to position itself as the main regional player. When the United States-led coalition began the “war on terror” in Afghanistan, the Uzbeks seized the opportunity, offering the use of a military airbase and building closer relations with western powers.

But this strategic partnership came to an abrupt end last summer, when Tashkent responded to US demands for an investigation into Andijan by evicting the American military and turning away from the West.

According to an Uzbekistan-based analyst who asked not to be named, President Karimov took this radical step not because he could easily dispense with western economic assistance, but because “western democratic standards had become a danger to the continued existence of the extreme authoritarian regime in Uzbekistan”.
iwpr.net