BY KONSTANTIN PARSHIN
For more than a decade Tajikistan and Uzbekistan have had a rocky relationship. But now, following an announcement by Tashkent that it is withdrawing from the Central Asian electricity grid, bilateral ties may take a dangerous nosedive.
When the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe finally decided to designate Kazakhstan as the chair of the group in 2010, the general hope in Vienna was that the responsibility would encourage Astana to liberalize its political system. But with just weeks to go before Kazakhstan's assumes the helm at the OSCE, those early hopes are proving illusory, leading Kazakhstani civil society activists say.
