Regnum.ru published the statistics on the population of Muslims in the post-Soviet countries, citing the Turkish site HaberVaktim.

Uzbekistan leads the CIS in the largest number of Muslims, with Russia in second place; Tajikistan leads with the highest percentage of Muslims in the population, with Azerbaijan in second place.

Uzbekistan — 23 897 563 — 89%

Russia  — 21 513 046 — 15%

Azerbaijan — 7 584 311 — 93.4%

Kazakhstan — 7 131 346 — 47%

Tajikistan — 6 805 330 — 95%

Turkmenistan — 4 407 352 — 89%

Kyrgyzstan — 4 117 02 — 80%

This isn't exactly "Arab Spring by the numbers," because there are very different variables at work in the Soviet-style countries — chief of which is that there is no Al-Jazeera (Russian TV is no Al Jazeera although it's banned sometimes or restricted because it's freer than domestic TV in Central Asia.)

Internet penetration is low in all these countries, Russia is big and growing but still only 30 percent.

Registan, EurasiaNet, and others in the International Relations school of thought that obsesses about the Central Asian region as a special snowflake vehemently reject "the Arab Spring frame" for discussing this region. The way to indicate that you're a cool kid, and even cooler than Blake Hounsell, is to roll your eyes if anybody compares Central Asia and MENA and starts talking about the Arab Spring (and why it "doesn't work" or "might work" in these countries.)

Of course, they've now simply created another frame which is "the frame about how this isn't the Arab Spring frame" — which dumbs down thought and artificially restricts discussion.

Atambayev just invoked the Arab Spring in his interview with Kommersant, discussing how trust in the leadership is more important than this or that constitution (hmm, constitutions are pretty important, too, especially to establish separation of powers and the rule of law, although as we know, Stalin's Constitution even had separation of powers, and look how that worked out.)

I'm fine with discussing the Arab Spring and Central Asia together in the same sentence. If you don't, you're never ready for the unexpected.  Registan can't have it both ways. On the one hand, they snort at Stratfor for the blooper of describing Central Asia as "buffers from the Islamic world" — Sarah Kendzior triumphantly explains that Central Asia *is* a part of the Muslim world".

Sure, Kazakhstan even chaired the Organization of Islamic Community last year after it chaired the OSCE — who even noticed? But while we "get it" that these countries are all part of the OIC and the Muslim world, let's face it, their Soviet past really makes them different and gives them a history of oppression, secularism, and isolation that meant for decades they *weren't* part of the Muslim world.

And we get it that "Muslimness" doesn't confer some rhizomatic revolutionary tendency, but come on, Hizb-ut-Tahir, founded in Palestine, spread to the Central Asian countries, as did other sects — it's not that people are jailed only for their own home-grown Muslim groups. It's ok to point this out and study what it means. Muslim prophets and prayers jump really quickly from cell phone to cell phone — this made the Uzbek authorities crazy and religious sites are among those they suppress most diligently.

As I noted about the more moderate imam who is still clinging to life after a horrible assassination attempt, "more moderate" doesn't necessarily impress these Soviet-style regimes of Central Asia. The Turkish Nurchilar (Nursi) schools are said to be more moderate, but both Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan have been very busy kicking them out in the last years, after first welcoming their educational services.