ALMATY: In the wake of the Sept 11 attacks, the United States forged ahead with alliances throughout Russian-dominated Central Asia, but five years later the tide has turned again.

At first, the US push into Central Asia appeared to have few limits. Washington established military bases in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan from where it could easily strike Afghanistan, while Russia, the long-time regional master, could only look on.

Kazakhstan, another ex-Soviet republic, even sent a small unit to join the coalition occupying Iraq.

These alliances in the name of Washington’s “war on terror” made for some unusual bedfellows.

Not only did former communist states welcome US troops, but Washington ignored the region’s authoritarianism, including what human rights experts describe as outright repression in Uzbekistan.

“But this period did not last long and it ended as soon as the United States reverted to its other agenda — the mission to spread democracy throughout the world,” said Dosym Satpaiyev, from the Risk Assessment Group.

“In five years, (US) influence in Central Asia has developed incredibly and now we are seeing a major reversal.”

A turning point, Satpaiyev said, was the bloody repression in May 2005 in the eastern Uzbek town of Andijan, where human rights organisations say several hundred people were gunned down by troops.

Washington and its European allies piled pressure on Tashkent, while the Uzbek government claimed that the trouble in Andijan had been stirred up by the United States and Islamist militants.

Soon after, Tashkent ordered the closing of the United States base on its soil and expelled a number of US-funded non-profit groups.

Russia swiftly began to restore its temporarily lost links.—AFP