The law should ban the propaganda of Soviet ideology in Uzbekistan, said Alisher Kadyrov, deputy speaker of the Uzbek parliament and leader of the Miliy Tiklanish party, as reported by gazeta.uz.
According to the agency, the MP supported the decision of the Samarkand Criminal Court, which sentenced a 74-year-old resident of the city, who campaigned for the restoration of the USSR, to three years of restriction of liberty. According to the case file, he posted statements on Telegram that “Uzbekistan’s independence is superficial and that the former Soviet Union has not officially collapsed.”
“I welcome the court’s decision! The Uzbek people were discriminated against and humiliated by the USSR government and are still healing the wounds of the past. The Soviet ideology, which rejected nations, values and faith, brought disaster not only to the Uzbek people, but to all of humanity, and its remnants remain a disaster.” – said Kadyrov.
He described the Soviet period in the history of Uzbekistan as sad and necessary to analyse and discuss it.
“But its approval or propaganda must be considered not only a crime against the constitutional order, but also a betrayal of our people and our ancestors, who were victims of the bloody regime,” – Kadyrov continued.
He has previously repeatedly spoken out against Soviet symbols. In May 2021, he said that raising the USSR flag at the “Songs of Victory” concert in Tashkent was an insult and a provocation.
“We consider it offensive to the Uzbek people to raise the flag of the Soviet occupying state in the very centre of the capital, which is soaked in the blood of representatives of the progressive Uzbek intelligentsia and our brilliant ancestors.” – Kadyrov said then.
