Uzbek unrest threatens Russia

“Uzbekistan is to Russia what Mexico is to the United States,” Elizaveta Isaev, professor of Russian politics, said to me as we walked along Old Arbot Street.
    
    ”Just as the United States cannot control its southern border with Mexico, so a radical Islamic victory in Uzbekistan, coupled with our Chechnya problem, would create a perhaps uncontrollable Islamic threat to Russia,” she continued. “How would Americans feel if Che Guevara were reincarnated on the U.S.-Mexican border?”

Editors note: A great piece on understanding some of the geopolitics in Central Asia.