[Ben] CA - Some weekend updates

Uzbekistan:

Olesya started posting in the forums - pondering about Solzhenitsin's book "One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich" and its relevance to contempory Uzbekistan.

A pretty simplistic article in the Turkish Weekly tries to shed light at the Economics of Regime Change in Uzbekistan.

If Western support has made Karimov into who he is, the rules of logic support the idea that the West can also finish him off.

The US warns Americans in Uzbekistan.

An interesting article on Chinese-Uzbek relations in the Pravda:

China's stance on the events in Uzbekistan is based primarily on the "Kyrgyz experience." Beijing is interested in maintaining its positions in Central Asia. "China used Kyrgyzstan as a "model country" of sorts for strengthening its economic influence in Central Asia," said Mr. Grozin. According to him, the groups that seized power in Kyrgyzstan mostly share the anti-Chinese sentiments and Beijing could not but worry about the situation. China does not want any new "velvet revolutions" in Central Asia.

The Kazakh ambassador is interested in the conditions in the refugee camps near Jalalabad, where a friend of mine is coordinating relief measures.

Kyrgyzstan:

There is a great interview with acting president Kurmanbek Bakiyev on Kommersant.com. Bakiyev talks about his alliance with Kulov (which is both tactical and strategic), the upcoming elections (which I will be observing, fingers crossed), the events in Uzbekistan and a potential Russian military base near Osh. Much to chew on, a must-read for Kyrygzstan fans. Also on Kommersant.com, an interesting analysis about Kyrgyzstan with a Bakiyev/Kulov duo:

Kurmanbek Bakiyev, a highly experienced economic manager, will be in charge of the security and foreign policy of the country, whereas Felix Kulov, a special service veteran, will determine its economic policy. In the opinion of leading politologists, this may be fraught with serious complications. It would be better if Bakiyev was the prime minister and Kulov the president.

The wider Caspian region:

The Baku-Tblisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline was inaugurated some days ago. Pravda has the geopolitical conspiracy piece, Blogrel has posts on the pipeline from an Armenian perspective (and also looking at Azerbaijan here), and Nathan has some bits, too.

And:

There is a new blog on Mongolia: "New Mongols" will be on my reading list. Very promising!

Nathan has great posts on the Almaty Fashion Week, Tashkent Plov, plus much other stuff.