Political scientist Rafael Sattarov: Uzbekistan knows about the risks of protests in his country even without Lukashenka

The leadership of Uzbekistan will draw its conclusions from the situation in Kazakhstan without Lukashenka’s mentoring tone. Political scientist from Uzbekistan Rafael Sattarov said this to Caliber.Az, commenting on the statement of the President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko at the CSTO online summit on the situation in Kazakhstan.

There, Lukashenka said: “Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan must solve joint problems. Lessons must be learned by Uzbekistan. If not, then according to our information, their (rebels – ed.) views [будут] thrown at Uzbekistan.

Sattarov noted that even without Lukashenka, they know and understand about the likelihood of a protest mood spreading towards Uzbekistan.

“Lukashenko, isolated in the European direction, is diligently trying to prove that he is now equal to Putin in CIS affairs. In order to show the appearance of the existence of the Belarusian foreign policy, he had only the post-Soviet space left. Uzbekistan can easily do without advice and instructions from Lukashenka, and certainly does not need his pseudo-forecasts,” the political scientist said.

At the same time, the expert admitted that similar protests are possible in Uzbekistan. “Growing poverty and inequality, problems with infrastructure, the supply of high-quality water, gas and electricity to the population, a monopoly on everything, even cars, high duties, corruption, mediocrity of the political elite with gypsy luxury, and a crushed intelligentsia, all this together strengthens the protest sentiments among the Uzbek society. In order to understand all this, Lukashenka’s opinion is not necessary,” the expert added.

Speaking about the situation in Kazakhstan, Sattarov expressed confidence that these protests did not have a single center. Sattarov believes that the authorities are trying to artificially shift the blame onto some foreigners.

“But, you see, what’s the matter, for the last two years the border between Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan has been closed, people use only air traffic, and the land part is only for trucks. It is impossible to just take and bring into the country a huge number of Kyrgyz, even if you use an air bridge. If they used this bridge, then it was done by the “order” of the generals of the KNB of Kazakhstan,” the political scientist suggested.