Actually the Americans turned out to be more principled with Uzbekistan than Putin, even in detriment to their own geopolitical interests. After the events in Andijan the US have transferred Tashkent among “suspect regimes”, to the rank of a “corrupted, repressive regime”, which the US does not want to tolerate.
Shortly, about what happened in Andijan. There on May 12-13th the government’s troops opened fire on peaceful residents who demanded social-political and economical reforms. According to the official version 187 “rebels” died. However according to the human rights organizations over 500 people were killed. President Karimov and his regime try to present this massacre as an anti-governmental rebellion. Still people were shot from machine guns. When the United States started to demand an independent investigation about the shooting in Abijan from the Uzbek authorities (in particular severe criticism was heard from the US Senate and from the democrats D. Baden and P. Likhi and from the republicans D. McCain, L. Grem and M. Divine), Uzbekistan’s authorities declared that they give 180 days to the American military to leave the country. The Americans started to negotiate a redislocation to Kyrgyzstan and to the country of Turkmenbashi.
In Russia we know very well about what happens in Turkmenistan. According to the Russian Memorial human rights society the number of political prisoners in Karimov’s country is over 7 thousand people. Torture is widely used. Independent journalists are tracked down and beaten (like National-Bolsheviks in Putin’s country). Nosir Zakirov, correspondent of Freedom Radio, was sentenced to 6 months of detention. Correspondents from BBC, Voice of America, German Wave, many newspapers, journals and Internet agencies have suffered. The BBC broke down and closed its office in Uzbekistan. On September 20th the trial of the people accused of “terrorist acts and other heavy crimes” in Andijan began in Uzbekistan’s Supreme Court. On the first day the defendants have pleaded guilty and on the second they demanded a death sentence (!) In the end of October 2005 the leader of the oppositional Sun Coalition Sanzhar Umarov was arrested. His lawyer arrived to the basement of the police station in Tashkent where he was detained. “He waited a long time before they bring Umarov in the office. Then the police asked Umarov to go down to the basement. When he looked through the window of the cell the lawyer saw the following: Sanzhar Umarov, completely naked, was standing, holding his head in his hands, swinging side to side and did not react to what was happening, Novaya Gazeta told in its 81st issue, 2005. President Putin is glad to strike a smiling pose next to president Karimov on all CIS summits. The official Russia adopted Karimov’s point of view: the death of people on May 13th is defined as an anti-governmental rebellion organized by terrorists. Putin expresses his solidarity with the repressive regime. Still, Karimov’s regime will finally fall and the Uzbek people and Uzbekistan’s following government will look on Russia and Russians like on the allies of a butcher.
But let us return to the American bases in Central Asia. In Kyrgyzstan the US military’s presence is legitimized by a bilateral agreement of October 2001. On November 8th 2005 the Americans held negotiations on the subject in Bishkek. Robert Mueller, FBI director, has heard Kyrgyzstan’s foreign minister Alekbek Jekshenkulov. No, Kyrgyzstan does not intend to say: “Yankees, go home!” to the Americans, Kyrgyzstan wants money, dollars. “The foreign minister noted the need to raise the rent of the Manas airport paid by the American side, to collect a payment for the air-navigation service and also to compensate the environmental damage from the use of the military base, Gazeta writes on 11.09.05. “Besides, it was proposed to increase the taxes, which have not yet corresponded to Kyrgyzstan’s tax legislation. (The 2001 agreement said that the non-residents among the foreign companies are freed from taxes for deliveries of products made on the Ganci US military base (The 376th air-expeditional corps of the US army with units of security and technical service are located on the Ganci base (in the Manas airport). Over 1200 militaries) and as a result the State budget, according to the republic’s finance ministry, has lost about 150 million dollars during the four years of the air base’s exploitation). /…/ Pentagon representatives have expressed their readiness to examine the oncoming financial and legal modifications of the agreement.” The principal phase of the anti-terrorist operation in the neighboring Afghanistan was finished a long time ago, therefore the necessity of a future stay of the American military and their planes in Kyrgyzstan and Central Asia in general is extremely dubious. After Karimov, infuriated by US criticism, refused to give the Khanabad air base to the US, on October 3rd, during his visit to Bishkek, the special representative of the NATO general secretary in Central Asia and Caucasus, Robert Simons, enlisted the support of Kyrgyzstan’s authorities concerning the continued use of the Ganci base. Moreover an agreement was reached about the enlargement of the air base’s military contingent – by transferring there subunits dislocated in Uzbekistan. A week after Simons, Condoleezza Rice arrived in Bishkek and received a confirmation from the president that the military base will be situated in the Bishkek Manas airport until the situation in Afghanistan completely stabilizes. The United States’ desire to have a military springboard is understandable, but it was the witless politician Putin who invited the US army there.
As we see, America consolidated its positions in the Central Asia region and does not intend on leaving. The October blitzkrieg visit of the US State secretary Condoleezza Rice in the Central Asia countries is an illustration of that. In the same way US State secretaries were making visits in “the US soft underbelly” – Latin America in previous times. From now on Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan are apparently considered as the US soft underbelly. The United States fixedly watches the events in Kazakhstan, the oncoming elections there. The 201st infantry division of the Russian army is still present in Tajikistan, covering the North path from Afghanistan, but it has an increasingly miserable role. The Tajik side is quietly forcing the Russians out from the region, seduced by the American money and by the fact that today it is Washington that has become the source of legitimacy for the former Soviet republics.
Putin managed to successively lose the levers of political influence on Moldova, Georgia, Belarus and Ukraine. As a result Russia was forced to withdraw its bases from Georgia in three years and for free, while recently the question was to withdraw the bases in eleven years and with a 500-million-dollars compensation from Georgia. The official propaganda explains the conflict between Russia and Georgia by Saakashvili’s pro-American orientation, in real fact a major role was played by the Kremlin’s stupid animosity to the former soviet bosses Shevarnadze and Abashidze and by the Russian side’s silly approach, stubbornness and haughtiness. There is no consequent policy in relation to Georgia (as in relation to the other former soviet republics). If we do not need Georgia, let us take Abkhazia and South Ossetia, while they still want it. If, for some unknown reason, we need Georgia and good relations with it, we have to recognize Saakashvili and work with him on clear bases and conditions. The Russian diplomacy made a fool of itself on the Abkhaz presidential elections, making all the efforts to bring to power a Kremlin’s protйgй – a former KGB officer. Abkhazia’s population resisted that. As a result a compromise was reached, Sergey Bagapsh, whom the population wanted, became president and a KGB officer imposed by Moscow became prime minister. Moscow’s awkward violence has infuriated and irritated the Abkhaz so much that more and more voices are heard in favor of keeping independence both from Georgia and from Russia. In the beginning of November Abkhazia’s defense ministry held large-scale exercises for the reservists. The goal of the exercises was “to defend the republic from an exterior attack and to assist the armed forces in repulsing a foreign aggression.” Abkhazia’s foreign minister Sergey Shamba said about this: “Abkhazia does not have to get an approval for its exercises neither from Georgia nor from Russia. We will not ask for their approval in the future either.” That’s right.