Russian TV sticks up for Karimov as Uzbekistan comes under fire from West.

(From BBC Monitoring International Reports)

Russian state TV channels saw the decision to disband the Central Asian Cooperation Organization (CACO) and transfer its functions to the Eurasian Economic Community (EAEC) at a summit in St Petersburg on 7 October as a key stage in the integration process on post-Soviet territory. They pointed out that this decision was prompted by Uzbekistan's decision to apply to join the latter organization, and interpreted Uzbek Islom Karimov's statement of thanks to President Putin for his support during the violence in Andijon as a direct rebuff to the USA. The same view of this statement was taken by pro-Kremlin spin-doctor Gleb Pavlovskiy on Gazprom's NTV. Pavlovskiy went on to say that the suppression of the unrest in Andijon had prevented a war. He also made a pointed comparison between Spain's shooting …