Uzbekistan low temperature is around −23 °C . Uzbekistan has a rich and diverse natural environment. However, decades of questionable Soviet policies in pursuit of greater cotton production have resulted in a catastrophic scenario with the agricultural industry being the main contributor to the pollution and devastation of both air and water in the country. The Aral Sea used to be the fourth-largest inland sea on Earth, acting as an influencing factor in the air moisture and arid land use. Since the 1960s, the decade when the overuse of the Aral Sea water began, it has shrunk to less than 50%
Terrorism and counter-terrorism in Kazakhstan Kazakhstan. HRW opposes the Kazakh government's extradition of Muslims to China because they may be sentenced to death. Yury Baluyevsky, First Deputy Defense Minister and Chief of the Russian General Staff, gave a speech to the chiefs of general staffs of Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan and Ukraine in February 2006 prior to the fifteenth anniversary of the creation of the Commonwealth of Independent States. He called on them to cooperate in fighting against "terrorism, cross-border crime and the drug mafia." The governments of Georgia, Moldova and Turkmenistan chose to not send representatives to the meeting. At the