Uzbekistan's prime minister, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, has won the presidential election with 88.61% of the vote, the Chairman of Uzbekistan’s Central Election Commission, Mirza-Ulugbek Abdusalomov, said.
“As many as 15,900,000 voters voted for Liberal Democratic Party’s candidate Shavkat Mirziyoyev, making up 88.61% of the whole number of voters,” Abdusalomov told a press conference.
The elections were held following the death of Islam Karimov.
A senior researcher of the Analytical Center IMI of the Russian MGIMO, Leonid Gusev, speaking to Vestnik Kavkaza, noted that Mirziyoyev's victory was the expected result of the elections. "I think that in foreign policy, he will continue to balance between Russia, China, the US and the EU. Uzbekistan is a country without access to the sea, but with significant oil and gas reserves. It is very closely linked by hydrocarbon streams with China and Russia's companies 'Gazprom', 'Lukoil' and others," he recalled in the first place.
"Uzbekistan also has borders with Afghanistan, therefore, the republic's security need to be given a great importance. Now it has one of the strongest armies in the region, but at the same time, there are strong opponents of the regime, such as the Islamic Movement of Turkestan. Therefore, for Mirziyoyev it is very important to strengthen the army, and in this situation we will see if it will cooperate, for example, with the CSTO, Uzbekistan's membership in which was suspended by Islam Karimov," Leonid Gusev pointed out.
The Director of the Analytical Center of the Institute of International Studies, Doctor of Political Science Andrei Kazantsev, in turn, drew attention to the existing positive contacts between Moscow and Tashkent. "The Russian-Uzbek contacts have improved, for example, an agreement on the military cooperation was signed. With regard to the situation in the region, the Uzbek policy has become milder recently, it concerns cooperation with Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan," he pointed out.
"There is also hope for a dramatic warming of relations between Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. I think that the general easing of Uzbekistan'a relations with Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan is not only is likely in the short term, but is already happening," Andrey Kazantsev believes.
