Monday, December 24, 2007

""Uzbekistan is like the Soviet Union, but the wrong way round. Everything bad about the Soviet Union we still have. But everything that was good - like its welfare and education system - has disappeared," Nigara Khidovatova, leader of the opposition Free Farmers party, said. "Our economy is feudal. The situation for workers in the countryside is one of near-slavery. Corruption is rampant," she added."