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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Uzbekistan
Index
BEFORE THE COLLAPSE of the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan was the third
largest Soviet republic by population and the fourth largest in territory.
Because it has a population that is more than 40 percent of the combined
population of the five Central Asian states of the former Soviet Union,
and because it has rich natural resources, many experts believe that
Uzbekistan is likely to emerge as the dominant new state in Central Asia.
But Uzbekistan's history also has given rise to serious problems: deeply
rooted ethnic tensions; serious economic, political, and environmental
challenges; and an uncertain security and foreign policy environment. Like
its neighbors in Central Asia, Uzbekistan emerged suddenly from more than
sixty years within a highly structured, and in many ways protective,
political and economic system. In the years following that emergence,
survival has depended on the development of new international
relationships as well as on solutions to the dilemmas of the Soviet era.
By 1996 Uzbekistan showed signs of progress in both directions.
Data as of March 1996
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