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The creation of the Union caused a certain euphoria about the prospects of regional integration, and a number of regional cooperation institutions and mechanisms were established, such as interstate presidential and prime minister-level committees, and the Central Asian Bank for Cooperation and Development. Also, at that time, relationships among the presidents could be termed friendly. The European Union and other Western countries keenly supported the idea of the Central Asian Union, promising financial infusions. However, a black cat must have crossed the path of regional integration, as events followed a totally different track from that conceived by the designers of the Central Asian Union. Although Tajikistan later joined the Union, all activity within its framework was confined to periodical summits of the presidents of its member states without any noticeable activity by the integration functionaries between those summits. At present, the Union could be considered a failure in most of its functions. There are two plausible causes for the failure. The first was the narrow-minded egotism of the governments and national bureaucracies that, as it turned out, were ready to take, not to give, and at moments of crisis sought to resolve their domestic problems at the cost of their neighbors. The second reason was an active opposition to the Union from Russia, which saw in it a threat to the influence and hegemony to which it was aspiring increasingly from year to year. Russia actively sought supremacy in the existing and newly created institutions of integration. Thus, in May 1992, the Collective Security Treaty was signed, strongly reminiscent of the notorious Warsaw Pac; almost all CIS countries joined, except Turkmenistan and Ukraine. In February 1999, when the treaty was to be renewed by all its parties, Tashkent refused further membership, seeking an alternative in cooperation with NATO. In response Russia took actions aimed at the political and economic isolation of Uzbekistan from the Central Asian countries. from the Toktogul reservoir, which results in flooding a significant area of irrigated land in Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The creation of the Union caused a certain euphoria about the prospects of regional integration, and a number of regional cooperation institutions and mechanisms were established, such as interstate presidential and prime minister-level committees, and the Central Asian Bank for Cooperation and Development. Also, at that time, relationships among the presidents could be termed friendly. The European Union and other Western countries keenly supported the idea of the Central Asian Union, promising financial infusions. However, a black cat must have crossed the path of regional integration, as events followed a totally different track from that conceived by the designers of the Central Asian Union. Although Tajikistan later joined the Union, all activity within its

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