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Simeon Mitropolitski is a Canadian analyst, of Bulgarian origin, and a former syndicated columnist with the Bulgarian News Agency (BTA). He is the author of several hundred articles dealing with hot political and economic topics, both national and international.

He was part of the first group of Bulgarian intellectuals and students that began the opposition movement that finally put an end to the communist regime in this country in 1989, and in 1996-1997 participated in international observation teams during the elections in several Balkan countries - Romania, Albania and Bulgaria.

In 2002 Simeon and his family moved from Bulgaria to Canada where they live now in Montreal, province of Quebec. Simeon is a Master of Political Science from McGill University and a B.A. of Political Science and History.

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December 1991. The Soviet Union collapsed. Western public opinion was focusing on events that occurred mainly in the European parts of the former empire. Many were talking about Ukraine, the Baltic republics, some mentioned Caucasus. If there was really a "black hole" on the map for the Western attention that were the countries that almost against their will became independent in Central Asia - Kazakhstan (Ka), Kyrgyzstan (Ky), Tajikistan (Ta), Turkmenistan (Tu) and Uzbekistan (Uz). In the last 8 years all positive that we have heard about them has been the progress in the construction works of some energy projects (Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan).

But suddenly came the 11th September and these countries received their 15 minutes of fame by allowing the US to use their territory and/or air space for military operations in Afghanistan. Who are these new American allies, why they help America and what Americans should expect from them during the war against the terrorists?

All these countries have many things in common. They all have predominantly Muslim populations (from a little above 50 percent in Ka. and almost 80 percent in Ky. to more than 90 percent in Ta., Tu. and Uz.). They all are very rich on natural resources (oil, natural gas, coal and iron in Ka., natural gas and oil in Tu., metallic ores, oil and natural gas in Uz., metallic ores and coal in Ta., some nonferrous metals in Ky.).

On the other side, the economic activity of the region in the past has been oriented toward the industrial centers in Russia so the Central Asia countries have so far a few if any independent roads for exporting their riches on the international markets. Thus they are very dependent on Russian transport infrastructures as is the case with the huge oil field "Tengiz" in Ka., which is operated by the US company Chevron.

The Russian presence in the region is strengthened by the fact that in some of these republics the Russian and Slavic population accounts for more than 20 percent (Ky.) or even more than 35 percent (Ka.) of the total population. The second reason for the strong Russian presence is the fact that the current ruling elite in these countries has received its political education in the Soviet communist party schools. The heads of state - Nursultan Nazarbayev (Ka.), Askar Akayev (Ky.), Imomali Rakhmonov (Ta.), Saparmurad Niyazov (Tu.) and Islam Karimov (Uz.) are former communist dignitaries. One of them, Karimov, supported the failed military coup against Mikhail Gorbachev in August 1991.

In all these countries except Ta. the constitutions put the biggest share of power in the hands of presidents. The presidential power is so big that presidents (as have been the cases in Ka. and Ky.) use it to call for referendums to extend their own mandates. In other republics (such as Uz.) the opposition parties were prohibited from participating in the 1991 and 1994 elections, and democratic activists reportedly have been kidnapped or attacked. In Tu. the president Saparmurad Niyazov officially became an object of personality cult.

People in all these republics are very poor even by the standards of the former Soviet Union so many persons of Russian and other Slavic origin migrated in the 90s towards Russia. This mass poverty ($10 to $100 average monthly salaries) facilitates the dictatorial style of the local governments.

So why these authoritarian, very undemocratic by their nature, regimes are helping the USA in their war against terrorism? The first reason is that because Moscow wants this. The US army will destroy the talibans, pacify Afghanistan, which in turn will benefit Russia and its "soft underbelly". The second reason is that by eliminating the radical Muslim danger from the south, the US will strengthen the Central Asian regimes which face their own radical Muslims. The third reason is that if the United States want to keep the region peaceful they will have after the war to help increase living standards in Central Asia.

In other words local regimes are trading their help for Western military and social security as well as for some economic prosperity in the future.

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See also the directory of companies providing real estate services in, and general real estate information of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan.