And now something on Uzbekistan, David E. Sanger in the NYT on Kerry, the US and diplomatic niceties in Central Asia:

'Mr. Kerry clearly felt that tension on Sunday.

Normally, he offers his hosts lavish praise. The best he could manage with Mr. Karimov was a somewhat awkward comparison to the worst practices of the Islamic State. In a brief appearance with Mr. Karimov in this spectacularly preserved Silk Road city, long a center of commerce and religious learning, Mr. Kerry said he admired “what you and your government have done to preserve that history and culture, and some of the architecture.” He added, “You’ve created something which is such a stark contrast to what Daesh, ISIL, is doing in the world today,” using two terms for the Islamic State, as he referred to that terror organization’s destruction of ancient monuments in Palmyra, Syria.

At the end of the statements, a reporter from The Washington Post asked Mr. Karimov about his country’s human rights record; she was quickly escorted from the room by American and Uzbek security officials. Mr. Karimov, who has evicted numerous foreign correspondents from his country and has shuttered any news organization that hints at questions over his rule, said nothing.'

(...)

'Yet the central dilemma facing Mr. Kerry is the one that confronted Mrs. Clinton: The canny Mr. Karimov watches visiting diplomats come and go, and has concluded that there is very little price he will ultimately have to pay for his government’s worst practices, which include, according to human rights reports, prisoners being boiled alive. The annual State Department human rights report pulls no punches, but the cables published by WikiLeaks draw a picture of Mr. Karimov as a man who simply does not care as long as the costs are low.'

Read the article here.

I remember passing through Uzebekistan on my way to Afghanistan this summer.

I was aware of the dictatorship over there and the brutalities of this dictatorship.
But some of the rather bizarre incidents and behaviour of the people over there become more logical when you keep in mind that the president likes to boil his opponents alive.