ALMATY, Kazakhstan -- Earlier this week, a violent scene in an Uzbek school turned into an official eyebrow-raising contest between Russia and Uzbekistan.
And on this occasion, Russia's famously sardonic and combative Foreign Ministry press chief, Maria Zakharova, more than met her match.
The incident took place at a school in the capital, Tashkent, on September 23.
A female teacher in a Russian-language class pulled a 10-year-old student's ear and slapped his face after he asked her why she was not speaking Russian.
Security-camera footage of the incident went viral on the Internet and sparked strong reactions on Russian social media.
On September 25, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in an interview that Russia "has requested official explanations from the Uzbek side" regarding the incident.
Zakharova called for an investigation and added that "action must be taken against the perpetrator of this cruel treatment."
Russia's decision to wade into Uzbek classrooms, in turn, sparked strong reactions in Uzbekistan.
Cue a response that Zakharova would be proud of, from Alisher Qodirov, the deputy chairman of Uzbekistan's lower house, who offered his opinion on Telegram.
"It would be better for [Russia] to deal with their own problems, which are not insufficient, than to deal with our internal issues," wrote Qodirov, who leads the Milliy Tiklanish (National Revival) Democratic Party.
"The violation of the rights of an Uzbek child at a school in Uzbekistan will be investigated in accordance with Uzbek laws. There is no advantage to stir up noise out of the blue," Qodirov wrote.
'Uzbekistan's Zhirinovsky'
Qodirov is an atypical presence in Uzbekistan's staid political scene, and he knows a few things about making noise.
In an op-ed for the Times of Central Asia newspaper earlier this month, Central Asia expert Bruce Pannier* called the lawmaker "Uzbekistan's point man against Russian 'chauvinism.'"
At the same time, given that Uzbekistan's political system is still deeply authoritarian, Qodirov "would not be saying the things he is without approval from people high up in the government," Pannier argued, citing several comments made by Qodirov in opposition to Russian nationalism and the Soviet Union.
Notable among those was his suggestion at the beginning of the year to prevent Russian channels from broadcasting in Uzbekistan, after a Russian politician and an academic made deeply offensive remarks about the history and people of Central Asian countries.
And yet ironically Qodirov has often been called "Uzbekistan's Zhirinovsky" -- a reference to the Russian nationalist firebrand politician Vladimir Zhirinovsky, who was a permanent fixture of post-Soviet politics in Russia for some three decades until his death in 2022.
The comparison is one that Qodirov himself resents.
In an October 2022 exchange with British journalist Joanna Lillis on X, Qodirov insisted that he was no chauvinist in the Zhirinovsky mold and instead stands for Uzbekistan's "national development in harmony with our traditions [and] values."
And yet the same politician did once propose to deport members of Uzbekistan's LGBT community, which is the kind of hyperbolic intolerance that Zhirinovsky was well known for.
That is only half of the reason that the tag has stuck.
Arguably more important is the fact that like Zhirinovsky, Qodirov has played the role of outspoken insider and "systemic opposition," while seemingly having no real political ambitions beyond the role he has been allocated.
In 2021, Qodirov was one of four candidates that faced off against President Shavkat Mirziyoev in the presidential election.
Many voters said that other than Mirziyoev, he was the only name on the ballot that they recognized.
But he was never going to threaten the incumbent's dominance, especially after he made the unpopular proposal of taxing money sent by Uzbeks working abroad to their families in Uzbekistan.
Ahead of snap elections in 2023, Qodirov and his Milliy Tiklanish duly backed Mirziyoev's candidacy.
New Environment, New Approach?
Even with all those caveats, Qodirov is something of a new phenomenon in Uzbekistan.
Under the quarter-century reign of Islam Karimov, few officials other than Karimov himself said anything remotely eye-catching.
That went for Mirziyoev, too, who spent 13 years as Karimov's prime minister but only really came out of his shell after the hard-line leader died.
Uzbekistan's diplomatic establishment, meanwhile, is cautious in the extreme.
Yet from Tashkent's point of view, a new geopolitical environment possibly demanded a new approach.
Russia's military involvement in Ukraine over the last decade has been accompanied by more aggressive rhetoric and a more assertive defense of its Soviet and imperial history.
Zakharova, who arrived in her current post in 2015, in some ways typifies this tendency.
And then there are all the Russian pundits, journalists, and lawmakers always ready to criticize and insult countries and societies that were formerly under Moscow's direct control.
This kind of thing can keep Foreign Ministry press chiefs busy -- just ask Aibek Smadiyarov in Uzbekistan's next-door neighbor, Kazakhstan.
Following Zakharova's intervention, there were plenty of demands for a direct diplomatic response.
"Maybe we can tell those in the north who still consider themselves 'big brother' or 'big sister' that Uzbekistan is a sovereign state and that we can solve the problem of discipline in Uzbek schools ourselves?" private news outlet Gazeta.uz quoted Komil Dzhalilov, an expert in education, as saying on September 26.
Financial analyst Otabek Bakirov asked on X which Uzbek official would tell Russia that "what happens in schools in Uzbekistan is an internal matter of Uzbekistan."
Eventually, such a reaction was forthcoming, sort of.
Documenting his visit to New York for the United Nations General Assembly, Uzbek Foreign Minister Baxtiyor Saidov stated on his official Telegram channel on September 27 that his delegation had held talks on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his colleagues.
During the talks, the two parties "underscored the importance of commitment of states to the principle of noninterference in each other's internal affairs for strengthening mutual trust," Saidov wrote.
Those kinds of statements, however, are for between-the-lines readers. For saying quiet parts out loud, there is Alisher Qodirov.
