2014 Winter Olympics

Uzbekistan 
(U.S. pronunciation:  U.K. pronunciation:  officially the Republic of Uzbekistan (Uzbek:O‘zbekiston Respublikasi, Ўзбекистон Республикаси) is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Between 1924 and 1991, it was part of the Soviet Union.
O nce part of the Persian Samanid and later Timurid empires, the region which today includes the Republic of Uzbekistan was conquered in the early 16th century by nomads who spoke an Eastern Turkic language. This region was subsequently incorporated into the Russian Empire in the 19th century, and in 1924 it became a bordered constituent republic of the Soviet Union, known as the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic (Uzbek SSR). It subsequently became the independent Republic of Uzbekistan on August 31, 1991 (officially, as of the following day). Most of Uzbekistan’s population today belong to the Uzbek ethnic group and speak the Uzbek language, a language belonging to the family of Turkic languages.
Uzbekistan's economy relies mainly on commodity production, including cotton, gold, uranium, and natural gas. Despite the declared objective oftransition to a market economy, its government continues to maintain economic controls which deter foreign investment and imports in favour of domestic 'import substitution'. The policy of a gradual, strictly controlled transition to the market economy has produced beneficial results in the form of economic recovery after 1995.^{[citation needed]}
Uzbekistan's domestic policies on human rights and individual freedoms have been criticised by some international organizations Uzbekistan has an area of 447,400 square kilometres (172,700 sq mi). It is the 56th largest country in the world by area and the 42nd by population.^[7] Among the CIS countries, it is the 5th largest by area and the 3rd largest by population.^[8]
Uzbekistan lies between latitudes 37° and 46° N, and longitudes 56° and 74° E. It stretches 1,425 kilometres (885 mi) from west to east and 930 kilometres (580 mi) from north to south. BorderingKazakhstan and the Aral Sea to the north and northwest, Turkmenistan to the southwest,Tajikistan to the southeast, and Kyrgyzstan to the northeast, Uzbekistan is one of the largestCentral Asian states and the only Central Asian state to border all the other four. Uzbekistan also shares a short border (less than 150 km or 93 mi) with Afghanistan to the south.
Uzbekistan is a dry, landlocked country. It is one of two doubly landlocked countries in the world (that is, a country completely surrounded by landlocked countries), the other being Liechtenstein. In addition, due to its location within a series of endorheic basins, none of its rivers lead to the sea. Less than 10% of its territory is intensively cultivated irrigated land in river valleys and oases. The rest is vast desert (Kyzyl Kum) and mountains.
The highest point in Uzbekistan is the Khazret Sultan, at 4,643 metres (15,233 ft) above sea level, in the southern part of the Gissar Range inSurkhandarya Province, on the border with Tajikistan, just northwest of Dushanbe (formerly called Peak of the 22nd Congress of the Communist Party).^[8]
The climate in the Republic of Uzbekistan is continental, with little precipitation expected annually (100–200 millimeters, or 3.9–7.9 inches). The average summer high temperature tends to be 40 °C (104 °F), while the average winter low temperature is around −23 °C (−9 °F).^[9]
Major cities include Andijan, Ferghana, Bukhara, Samarkand, Namangan and the capital Tashkent.