Tashkent, photograph by Flickr user nadi0 (CC-usage).

Editor’s note: US Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O. Blake visits Uzbekistan, and neweurasia’s Marat speculates as to reasons why. Is it due to Karimov’s détente with the EU and his recent uranium deal with Japan? Is it because of the revolutionary events sweeping through the Middle East?

It seems realpolitik spares no one. No moral predicament or ideology is capable of stopping the pragmatic state mechanism. U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs Robert O. Blake, Jr. proved this notion once more this week when he traveled to Uzbekistan, a country that not only fails to meet the “democracy standards” the US is allegedly promoting all over the globe, but has also simply kicked a US military base out of the country for criticizing Uzbek authorities’ “disproportionate use of force” in the Andijan massacre in 2005. Uzbek-US relations have not only cooled down, but froze after that. But then relations started turning less tense over the last couple years with high-ranking officials exchanged visits.

Mr Blake’s visit to Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan following the removal of Egypt’s Mubarak and Tunisia’s Ben Ali makes one think that either Mr Assistant Secretary of State wants to see whether today’s Central Asian dictators have taken measures in order not to face the fate of Middle Eastern colleagues, or he wants to assure the former of the US support, should such a situation arise.

While this assumption could hold some water, a more probable explanation is Mr Karimov’s recent visits: first to Europe late January, which was, by the way, full of controversies – “we did not invite him,” said NATO, “they wanted to come first,” while the Belgian monarch’s press secretary would point at Tashkent. Given that the EU has still not given up its attempts to diversify its energy sources, Mr Karimov is no longer disliked, to put it mildly, in Brussels. The second visit, totally freaking the US State Department out, took Mr Karimov in the opposite direction, as the Uzbek President paid an official visit to Japan. The freaking out part is “a long-term contract to supply uranium to Japan,” as Uznews.net reported. Such an impressive swing between East and West, with its implications, sends a message to the Kremlin and the White House that the EU has forgiven him and the Japanese are ready to deal with him despite the accusations of using child labor, human rights violations, etc. Therefore, while Mr Blake’s visit could be disguised as a visit in line with the annual bilateral consultations, a Tashkent-based blog hits the bull’s eye saying the visit could be entitled as “[I drink] to you and us, to oil and gas!”

Yes, it is Washington who is coming to Tashkent, but the latter is known for Oriental hospitality and generosity. A pleasant souvenir was prepared for Mr Blake: the Uzbek authorities closed the notorious prison in none other than Andijan. But, of course, this move won’t fool anyone into believing that the number of inmates is decreasing and that human rights are finally respected, because the inmates have simply been transferred to other prisons, and human rights are still one of pressing issues in the country – indeed, Mr Blake had “a productive discussion” in this regard.

In conclusion, conditions of realpolitik and financial interests force the US to seek and maintain cooperation with dictators throughout the globe. As far as Uzbekistan is concerned, the WikiLeaks cables have been revelatoru, as the Guardian writes: “[T]he secret dispatches released by WikiLeaks reveal that the US tries to keep President Islam Karimov sweet because he allows a crucial US military [non-lethal] supply line to run into Afghanistan, known as the northern distribution network (NDN).”