In this series, author and journalist Simon Reeve travels to Central Asia to "meet the Stans' - Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. His journey provides viewers with a unique insight into these countries' culture and politics. As well as discovering a region teeming with Islamic militants, ruthless tyrants and radioactive wastelands, Reeve also finds a more absurd side to these obscure countries, including an American military base that sells Soviet knick-knacks, a desert full of shipwrecks and a first-rate Beatles tribute band. After a long journey through Central Asia, journalist Simon Reeve gives a personal view of the many challenges facing countries in the region. Meet the Stans was broadcast every evening from Monday, 3 November to Thursday, 6 November, 2003, at 2320 GMT on BBC Two. In Meet the Stans, the BBC's Holidays in the Danger Zone series takes a look at Central Asia. In this four-part co-production between BBC Two's Correspondent programme and BBC Four, Simon Reeve travels around Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan, bringing the viewer a unique insight into these countries' culture and politics.
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Meet the Stans. Video hosted on Youtube. Sharing an 800-mile border with Afghanistan, which provides 90% of Europe's heroin, Tajikistan is one of the world's biggest drug trafficking routes. Simon joins a drugs raid, visits a warehouse with £100 million worth of heroin, and gets drunk with the conscripts who survive on just $5 a month while patrolling the Afghan border, one of the most dangerous in the world. In the most repressive of the "Stans" visited, Simon finds himself followed by the secret police as he travels across the country. He meets the country's most famous pop star, visits a bodyguard training school, breaks the law by playing snooker and meets women at a marriage bureau for Uzbeks wanting western husbands. He then ends his journey in the stunning ancient cities of Bukhara and Samarkand. The fifth "Stan,' Turkmenistan, refused Reeve and his BBC crew a visit to their country. He will have something to say about that at the end of the fourth program.
Tajikistan
A former Soviet republic, Tajikistan plunged into civil war almost as soon as it became independent from the Soviet Union in 1991. A rugged, mountainous country, with lush valleys to the south and north, it now faces the challenge of strengthening peace and reviving its ruined economy. Tajikistan has been accused by its neighbours of tolerating the presence of training camps for Islamist rebels on its territory, an accusation which it has strongly denied.
The republic has relied heavily on Russian assistance to counter continuing security problems and cope with the dire economic situation. Russian forces guarded sections of the border with Afghanistan until mid-2005 when their withdrawal was completed and the task handed over to Tajik border guards.
Skirmishes with drug smugglers crossing illegally from Afghanistan occur regularly, as Tajikistan is the first stop on the drugs route from there to Russia and the West.
In October 2004 Russia formally opened a military base in Dushanbe where several thousand troops will be stationed. It also took back control over a former Soviet space monitoring centre at Nurek. These developments were widely seen as a sign of Russia's wish to counter increased US influence in Central Asia.
Uzbekistan
In 1991 Uzbekistan emerged as a sovereign country after more than a century of Russian rule - first as part of the Russian empire and then as a component of the Soviet Union.
Positioned on the ancient Great Silk Road between Europe and Asia, majestic cities such as Bukhara and Samarkand, famed for their architectural opulence, once flourished as trade and cultural centres.
Uzbekistan is the most populous Central Asian country and has the largest armed forces. There is no real internal opposition and the media is tightly controlled by the state. A UN report has described the use of torture as "systematic".
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