All Conflicts across Post-Soviet Space Echo in Moscow, Uzbek Community Leader Says

 Paul Goble

            Staunton, July 6 – Diasporas from the former Soviet republics now living in the Russian capital are so numerous that any conflict anywhere in the post-Soviet space will echo in Moscow, according to Bakhrom Ismailov, president of the Uzbek National-Cultural Autonomy there.

            Because that is so, it should surprise no one that the conflicts in Karakalpakstan are now echoing in the Russian capital, he and Maksetbay Allamuratov, a leader of the Karakalpak diaspora there, say (nazaccent.ru/content/38626-karakalpaki-moskvy-konflikt-iz-sosednego-gosudarstva-ne-dolzhen-perehodit-na-rossijskuyu-zemlyu.html).

            What is important, both they and others in these communities and among Russian specialists on Central Asia say, is that tensions in their homelands don’t grow over into clashes in the streets of the Russian capital and other Russian cities. Instead, the diasporas should work to maintain ties which have been frayed into the places they are from.

            These expressions of concern are a reminder of how closely tied the non-Russian diasporas in Russian cities are to their homelands, how important a source of information they are about those often inaccessible places, and how worried the Russian authorities are worried that conflicts elsewhere will spread to Russian cities whether Moscow is involved in them or not.