Moscow (AsiaNews) – On 15 August 2021, the Taliban retook Kabul after the sudden and precipitous withdrawal of US troops, which unleashed chaos at the airport, with mothers throwing children over fences into the arms of US marines.

A year later, news reports from Afghanistan are increasingly sporadic and vague, except for the reimposition of religious extremism and tribal rules.

In neighbouring Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan, but also Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, the authorities are monitoring with apprehension any possible spillover of radical Islam.

The countries of Central Asia are trying everything to encourage a moderate practice of religion, compatible with far from stable political systems, entrusted to a former Soviet ruling class that thrived for decades on Russia’s relative stability on the one hand and Western armed forces on the other.

Now the dual pillar is no more. War and weapons are back at both ends dictating the flow of political and social life amid an economic crisis that is fuelling tensions within their territories pitting various social classes and ethnic groups against each other.

In addition to their asymmetrical neutrality vis-à-vis Russia’s war in Ukraine, the ways these countries have managed to handle the Afghan powder keg are particularly important.

Tajikistan is at the forefront not only for geographical reasons – its border with Afghanistan is the one most at risk of infiltration – but also for its ethnic make-up since Tajiks are Afghanistan’s largest ethnic minority, but unrecognised by the Pashtun-dominated government in Kabul.

For its part, Uzbekistan is pursuing a containment policy, not only because it is the most populous country in the area (35 million vs 31 million Afghans) but also because of its strategic location on the trade routes linking China, India, Russia, and Europe.