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While many aspects of recent events in Uzbekistan remain unclear, one thing is perfectly obvious. Unless the government of President Islam Karimov quickly moves to introduce economic and political reforms, it will not regain public confidence.
McFaul writes that Bush must praise the region's emerging democracies but spank Putin (in private)
Russian liberals and Western observers have criticized Putin’s comment in his April 25, 2005, address to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation "that the Soviet Union’s collapse was the biggest geopolitical catastrophe of the century." If one accepts the premise that he made this statement from the standpoint of a Russian citizen for a Russian audience, it is hard to disagree with.
Putin did not inherit a consolidated democracy when he became president in 2000, and he has not radically violated the 1993 constitution, cancelled elections, or arrested hundreds of political opponents. However, although the formal institutions of Russian democracy remain in place, the actual democratic content of these institutions has eroded considerably in the last few years.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice will arrive in Moscow on Tuesday, April 19th, 2005, for a two-day visit. According to official press release, Ms. Rice will be involved in preparations for the forthcoming meeting between American President George W. Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow during the May 9th V-Day celebrations.
What we have seen play out over the last few weeks in Kyrgyzstan is but the first scene of a lengthy drama that will dominate the Central Asian stage over the next few years. And we can only hope that in later acts, the action won't turn bloodier.
For the third time in 18 months seriously flawed elections have brought down the government in a CIS state, and for the first time this has occurred east of the Urals, demonstrating that popular expectations in the Asian states of the former Soviet Union are not appreciably different from those in the European ones.
The ouster of Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev shows that popular expectations in the Asian states of the former Soviet Union are not appreciably different from those in the European ones. The United States and its OSCE partners must be prepared to provide Kyrgyzstan’s interim authorities with the technical assistance necessary to make these elections meet international norms.