What about Central Asia?

With all the attention being paid to the triumph of democracy in Ukraine and its spread in Iraq and Lebanon, perhaps we should spare a thought for the Tajiks and Kyrgyz. Like Uzbekistan, both Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan have recently had elections. And like Uzbekistan, those elections were shams. According to the OSCE, Tajikistan's elections "failed to meet many OSCE commitments and other international standards for democratic elections", and suffered from "widespread irregularities" including intimidation of the press, barriers to opposition candidates, and "manipulation during the vote counting and the tabulation of votes". Those in Kyrgyzstan "fell short" of international standards and were marred by

vote buying, de-registration of candidates, interference with media and a worryingly low confidence in judicial and electoral institutions on the part of voters and candidates.

The OSCE also reported multiple voting, intimidation, and infringements of freedom of expression and assembly.

But the parallels with Uzbekistan don't just stop with the local rulers' penchant for fixing elections. As with Uzbekistan, Russian observers pronounced the elections "fair and legitimate" (which I suppose they were - by Russian standards). And as with Uzbekistan, US criticism of these poor parodies of democracy has been muted at best. Why? Because like Uzbekistan, both Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan are allies in the "war on terror", and play host to US troops. And in exchange for that, the US seems quite willing to look the other way on a little bit of despotism.

In Tajikistan, the opposition are suing. In Kyrgyzstan, they're taking to the streets. But in both cases, it looks as if the local democrats will be doing it without even the moral support of the US. So much for "spreading freedom"...