Nasty, brutish and long: these seem to be what the leaders of Central Asia's states intend their rule to be. Kazakhstan, the region's biggest country, and Uzbekistan, its most populous, have as good as presidents for life. Nursultan Nazarbayev and Islam Karimov have been in power since Soviet days and they manipulate elections or the constitution to stay there. Tajikistan's strongman is only slightly less long-lived. Turkmenistan had a self-styled "President for Life", who proved mortal in 2006. His successor also seems to be settling in for the long haul.
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