ABSTRACT
The disappearance of the Soviet superpower, oppressive to its subjects as it was, has created a dangerous imbalance of power among its former components and between them and their neighbours. As for Uzbekistan, under its authoritarian leader Islam Karimov, the country had a dizzying record of joining and leaving post-Soviet international organisations. The Greater Eurasia Partnership (GEP) is one of Russia’s responses. Although vague on detail and institutionally confusing, the basic idea of GEP is for Russia and its allies to retain autonomy in the new construct and not be swallowed up by the Chinese giant on the one side or the historical West on the other. The Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa grouping was formally established in June 2006 with Brazil, Russia, India and China as founding members, with South Africa joining in December 2010.
