Uzbekistan will never join any union that resembles Soviet Union: Islam Karimov

Uzbekistan will never join a union that resembles the former Soviet Union and will never return into the Soviet Union era again. Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov said this on January 12 addressing the country’s parliament, Tengrinews reports citing UzDaily.uz.

According to the Uzbek leader, Uzbekistan will never depend on other countries. His people chose their own path of development, he said.

Karimov mentioned that some countries were making attempts to return into the Soviet Union era, but abstained from specifying which countries exactly he was talking about.

But he said that some foreign TV channels tended to praise Lenin and Stalin eras more and more often. “Such approach is unacceptable for us,” he declared.

According to Turkist, an independent media outlet, Karimov said that Tashkent (Uzbekistan) would not join any military-political blocs or alliances, and would not allow foreign military bases or other facilities at its territory.

After the Eurasian Economic Union of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia began its work on January 1, 2015, Russian media made several mentions of Uzbekistan and Tajikistan could be willing to join the union in 2015.

However, given Karimov’s statement, Uzbekistan doesn't seem to be particularly interested in joining the union. Moreover, this position did not change even after Putin's visit to Uzbekistan in early December. "This can mean only one thing: the Kremlin has finally lost its leverage over this rich Central Asian country, whose membership in the Eurasian Union would have been a good booster for Russia that is drowning in western sanctions," the media outlet wrote.

Writing by Assel Satubaldina, editing by Tatyana Kuzmina