While the country's Religious Affairs Committee claims positive results, international organisations denounce violations against radical Islam, but also against minorities such as the Ismailites, Jehovah's Witnesses and the Bahai.
From Sarajevo, where the World Congress of Uyghur Exiles is taking place, Director Zumretaj Arkin's denounces Beijing's pressure. ‘The positive narrative that the standard of living in Xinjiang continues to improve is just propaganda’.
In recent days, Tashkent too celebrated its parliamentary elections, equally dividing the votes between the 42.7% of President Šavkat Mirziyoyev's liberal-democratic party and those of the other ‘alternative’ parties, but in reality all loyal to the current regime. While freedom of expression and of the press continues to shrink year by year.
Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkemnistan are also awaiting the outcome of the confrontation between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris with interest, considering the disruptive effects of world events on the region's prospects. Also hanging in the balance is the future of the ‘5+1’ contact format through which the White House has tried to gain footholds in the former Soviet area in recent years.
The trials of Tashkent's most notorious criminals go on in a blur between reports of torture in prison and incredibly mild sentences. With other prominent figures, fugitives abroad, appearing together with local politicians in the stands of major sporting events.
‘There are no serious problems between our countries,’ assures Dushanbe, and in regional organisations, Tajiks are the first to support the Russians' arguments. But in the meantime, disappointment is growing over the Russian authorities' relations with migrants who have suffered outrage and violent forms of discrimination since the Krokus City Hall bombing.
