Fitting Jérômes Great Game piece, Billmon writes about managed democracies In the Steppes of Central Asia
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March 28, 2005
Billmon: In the Steppes of Central Asia
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Good summary of the situation.
I would really tend to separate the Western bit of the “stans” – and the oil that goes with it, in or near the Caspian Sea, with the rest of them, which have no oil (they do have gas, but it is essentially worthless or given at a low price to Russia) and where the big strategic issues are linked to the rise of Islamism, and to games of encirclement (around Iran as Billmon points, but also around Russia, also with useful toeholds West of China – who knows what will happen in a few years) played by the US.
The current problem in the region is that of democracy, religious freedom (i.e. strong Islam) and the US, you can never have more than 2 at the same time…
Posted by: Jérôme | Mar 28 2005 13:14 utc | 1
interesting…..i’ve heard rumours recently of similar faces with very heavy US funding being seen amongst those in the so-called populist uprisings in the balkans, then georgia, ukraine, lebanon, and kyrgystan. all of these uprisings are pro-US and anti-russian. none seem to be popping up in US leaning countries.
is there any truth to these rumours?
i’d like to be enlightened.
Posted by: lenin’s ghost | Mar 28 2005 23:39 utc | 3
I have assumed that the lack of good talking points in the MSM about the Kyrgystan case (no leader proclaimed until after the parliament had been stormed and so forth) points towards Kyrgystan having a more home-grown revolution.
I think it is fair to assume that the well-organised revolutions in Serbia, Georgia, Ukriane and Lebanon has a economic and organisational backing from the US. However I do not think they could have succeded without large discontent about the situation. The Guardian wrote a piece on Otpors connections to the Orange and Tulip revolutions in november 2004.
Posted by: A swedish kind of death | Mar 29 2005 12:50 utc | 4