Agreed. But let's not forget the Democrats and the whole international left were stirring that pot pretty hard too. The loss of Uzbekistan hurts. They are the key to the entire region.
Agreed. Uzbekistan is the most populous of the `stans.
Uzbeks I spoke to didn’t care for Karimov & thought he has a personality cult going (not like that dear leader in Turkmenistan) but at the time it was said, “He’s an SOB but he’s our SOB”. If only.
Most of our stuff was transshipped by rail into UZ. USAF & DHL brought the sensitive items. Uzbeks were still Russia-leaning when I left; they all spoke Russian and many spoke excellent English.
UZ could have been steered into a Western orbit but the geography is too forbidding for the only double landlocked country in the world.