#8
BBC Monitoring
Russian expert weighs likely role of Uzbekistan in any US reprisal attacks
Source: TV6, Moscow, in Russian 1500 gmt 17 Sep 01
[Presenter] There have been claims in the Western press that one of the CIS
states, Uzbekistan, has agreed to allow the USA to use its territory for
strikes against Afghanistan. As yet, there has been no official denial or
confirmation. A decision like this by Uzbekistan could be at odds with
Russia's stance as announced last week whereby the southern republics of the
CIS should not allow the US military to use their territory. At the same
time, Russian politicians are saying that it is precisely Uzbekistan that
could very well take such a step.
[Aleksey Arbatov, deputy chairman of the Russian Duma defence committee,
Yabloko faction] Firstly, Uzbekistan is not a member of the CIS Collective
Security Treaty and does not feel itself bound by any additional conditions.
It is well-known that within the GUUAM [Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan,
Azerbaijan and Moldova] group, Uzbekistan recently pulled out, or rather let
its membership lapse, like a number of other former republics of the Soviet
Union that are CIS states. It would seem that Uzbekistan has decided to take
advantage of this pretext to obtain more effective, real, material and
tangible support from the USA to make up for what, in its own view, it is not
receiving from Russia in its battle with Islamic extremists.
