Nearly 13 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, prospects for democratic reform in Central Asia are disappearing, warned opposition leaders from Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan at a recent conference in London.
Delegates to the "Democracy in Eurasia: How Far, How Fast?" gathering, co-organized on November 12 by the International Freedom Network (IFN), a democratic activist group for Central Asia, and the Foreign Policy Centre, a London-based think tank, described the region's governments as holdovers from the Soviet era both in terms of personalities and outlook. The economic benefits from privatization, participants charged, have gone to those with ties to governments. Throughout the region, corruption is used to guarantee ongoing political loyalty. Political institutions remain underdeveloped, while legal systems and the media are used simply to reinforce the status quo, delegates said.
"After a decade of political stagnancy, Eurasia[
Editor's note:
Mevlut Katik is a London-based journalist and analyst. He is a former BBC correspondent and also worked for The Economist group.
