The ex-soviet central Asian republics are packed full of secret police -- until 2006, Turkmenistan boasted one of the world's most famous totalitarian regimes under his Amazingself-for-life President Niyazov, and although his successor has made some reforms, things haven't gotten much better since Niyazov's death. The other republics share the same kind of government to a greater or lesser extent. IWPR at http://iwpr.net has amazing independent coverage of Central Asia, the Balkans, and Africa, and is a good place to keep abreast of what's going on in those regions.
You may be thinking of the former Eastern Bloc countries, which with a few notable exceptions have followed a much more democratic path after the fall of the Iron Curtain.
I agree, and shouldn't have painted all the Central Asian republics with the same broad brush (that wasn't really my intent, but I see how it came out).
Agreed. Kaz is very free, compared to, say, Kyrgyz, or Uzbek, or Turkmen. It's also very free compared to the US. You can see the "secret" police. They stand out like sore thumbs, as they're mostly Russians, and dress different, and harass people.
I think that she may have mistaken overt police corruption for a police state. The two are not synonymous.
I'd say this is probably true for Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, as those countries have powerful authoritarian leaders that fully enjoy the benefits of the security apparatus left over from the USSR.
Tajikistan is different as the president's power is somewhat limited the further away you go from the few important cities.
Don't know much about Kazakhstan, but I suspect it's more or less like Uzbekistan.
Been there. Nothing like Uzbekistan. And Uzbekistan is nothing like Turkmen. Just because they're in the same (HUGE) part of the world doesn't make them all the same.
Mexicans, Americans, Ecuadorians, what's the difference?
It is common mistake to count all countries with names ending "*stan" as one totalitarian region. I live in Kazakhstan whole my life (30yr) and I or all my friends hadn't any issues with police. We have one big drawback, it's called corruption, but all countries have to pass through this desease.
Turkmenistan is something special, I've heard of that.
I'm not saying anything about "democratic path". That I am saying is about nobody caring about anything (probably with an exception of taking bribes) in most of ex-USSR countries.
You may be thinking of the former Eastern Bloc countries, which with a few notable exceptions have followed a much more democratic path after the fall of the Iron Curtain.