UZBEK GOVERNMENT, OPPOSITION TO MEET.

Segodnya reported May 11 that Uzbek officials would meet in Moscow later this month with leaders of the Uzbek opposition. The paper said that this meeting–the second after a failed contentious session in Washington January 31–was taking place at the request of Tashkent. Whether the opposition leaders now living in emigration will show up remains an open question: Segodnya suggested that their return might result in their “forcible return to their own country as state criminals.” The paper reported the same day that Uzbekistan had resumed talks with Kazakhstan on gas deliveries. Both steps suggest that the Tashkent authorities are seeking to improve their standing in the West, in Moscow, and in their own neighborhood.

A Change in Command in Tajikistan.