No Arab Spring in Central Asia

The World Economic Forum on Europe and Central Asia is taking place in Vienna on Wednesday and Thursday, attended by 13 heads of state and government. In the run-up to the Forum Austria's foreign minister Michael Spindelegger has called for more firms to invest in the Eurasian zone. The liberal conservative daily Die Presse sees this as reckless: "Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have just been classified by [the organisation for researching the state of democracy] Freedom House among the 'nine worst of the worst' countries as regards human rights abuses. Like these two countries, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan are also countries with despotic, long-term rulers where the opposition is repressed to differing degrees. Only Kyrgyzstan is venturing any democratic experiments. ... There is no sign so far of an Arab Spring coming to Central Asia. But in these despotic states too, the people's anger has been intensifying for some time now. The question is when it will erupt into violence. And Spindelegger must let the Austrian investors know this too."

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