While democracy prevailed in the 48 million population former Soviet Republic of Ukraine this weekend (still no word on whether a
sucessionist movement in the defeated Eastern region has fizzled or not), in fellow former Soviet Republic Uzbekistan with a population of 28 million, which is a dictatorship in all but name, the ruling group was
re-elected in a sham election, warning that no "orange revolution" (a la Ukraine) would be tolerated. This election was an improvement over the previous one in 1999, because there were five parties on the ballot. The problem? Any party that opposed that government was disqualified.
Oh, one more thing, according to the U.S., Uzbekistan is one of the good guys, because they are on our side in the "war on terror". Then again, pro-torture monarchy Saudi Arabia is on our side too according to the administration. By comparison, Uzbekistan doesn't look so bad.