Putin lays flowers at Uzbek strongman’s grave

Published September 7, 2016
Samarkand: Russian President Vladimir Putin holds flowers as he walks to pay his respects at the grave of Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov.—AP
Samarkand: Russian President Vladimir Putin holds flowers as he walks to pay his respects at the grave of Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov.—AP

MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday laid roses at the grave of late Uzbek leader Islam Karimov, whose death last week after 27 years in charge sparked fears of instability in the Central Asian nation.

Footage broadcast by Russian state television showed Putin kneeling at Karimov’s flower-covered grave in the historic city of Samarkand after he made a detour to ex-Soviet Uzbekistan on his way home from the G20 summit in China.

Putin also held talks with Uzbek Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev, in a further sign that he is the frontrunner to replace Karimov, who was announced dead at 78 on Friday after a stroke with no clear successor.

Long lambasted by rights groups for brutally crushing dissent, Karimov portrayed himself as a bulwark against radical Islam on the border of Afghanistan and played off Russia, the West and China against each other.

But the Russian leader praised Karimov for maintaining “stability” and said Russia would “do everything to support the Uzbek people and the Uzbek leadership.” “You can count on us fully, as you can on your most faithful friends,” Putin said, according to Interfax news agency.

Mirziyoyev — a Karimov loyalist known as a tough-guy enforcer — told Putin that Uzbekistan’s ties with Russia were “completely strategic” and that Tashkent would look to “continue to develop” them, Interfax said.

Published in Dawn, September 7th, 2016

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