MOSCOW. (RIA Novosti political commentator Arseny Oganesyan.)
The decision by Uzbek President Islam Karimov regarding the withdrawal of U.S. bases from his country has provoked Western media to lash out against Moscow and to some extent Beijing. The West believes that without their support Karimov would have never dared take such a desperate step.
The loss of the American military bridgehead requires close attention, but it should be analyzed in the context of a large-scale geopolitical struggle for spheres of influence in Central Asia.
There are three major players: China, Russia, and the United States. Each has its own interests, and all three want this poor region to be calm and prosperous. But this will not happen unless radical Islam is fully eradicated, a formidable task that can only be accomplished by a concerted effort. Understanding this truth gives Washington, Moscow and Beijing the opportunity to reach a compromise that they all need.
There is no reason to accuse the Kremlin of acting against the U.S. and the West as a whole in Central Asia. Such accusations are made by those in the American ruling elite who have been trying to engineer the fast democratization of the region without giving much thought to the process. This is why the U.S. lost Islam Karimov as a reliable ally.
In a bid to conceal this failure the U.S. media has accused Russia and China of a conspiracy against the U.S., and called the Karimov regime a criminal and undemocratic "dictatorship". For many years the U.S. had not said a word on this score, which is understandable: A military airfield is more important.
Moscow has its own geopolitical goals in the region, but its current policy in no way contradicts the interests of the West or China, because Russia wants to maintain stability in Central Asia at all costs.
Unrest provoked in Uzbekistan by the radical Muslims threatened to turn the whole area into a hotbed of tension. This is why both Moscow and Beijing supported Karimov. Otherwise, the country might have been engulfed by a revolution, and not an Orange but a radical Muslim one. This would not have been in Western interests.
After numerous acts of terror perpetrated by Muslim fanatics all over the world, there should be no room for illusions: Muslim fundamentalists pose a formidable threat to the civilized world. Moscow's policy in Central Asia suits Western interests more than fast and unbalanced schemes of regional democratization.
