The Uzbek President, Mr Islam Karimov, must be the happiest man in central Asia. Mr Karimov, a mechanical engineer and the former first secretary of the Uzbek Communist Party, demonstrated a propensity for ambitious and nasty dictatorship after his election a decade ago.
With its gold, gas, petrol and cotton wealth, Uzbekistan attracted US investment. But the Americans belly-ached about the imprisonment of opposition leaders without trial, the assassination of journalists, torture...
Then September 11th happened.
As US aircraft arrived at former Soviet bases near the Uzbek border with Afghanistan, CNN's reporter in Tashkent made it clear that the Uzbeks were now the good guys. Mr Karimov stands to be a big winner of this new version of Rudyard Kipling's Great Game. Uzbekistan "sees the crisis as an opportunity to extract economic and political concessions from the West," a new report by the International Crisis Group surmises.
President Bush listed the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) as one of the 24 terrorist groups and individuals with whom the US is at war. The IMU is led by 37-year-old Jumaboy Namangani, with 3,000 guerrillas. Namangani is said to carry a document from the Taliban leader, Mullah Omar, describing him as an honoured guest in Afghanistan, and is allegedly a lieutenant to Osama bin Laden.
The Uzbek government blamed the IMU for a 1999 bombing campaign that killed 16 people - unless it was the Russians, who, the Uzbeks claim, are covertly supporting the IMU to force Mr Karimov to seek help from Moscow. The IMU has twice staged incursions into Uzbekistan and neighbouring Kyrgyzstan, passing on both occasions through Tajikistan.
Since Russia controls Tajikstan's borders, Moscow was suspected of aiding and abetting the raids.
Mr Karimov's honeymoon with Washington has further worsened his relations with Moscow. Mr Karimov was the only central Asian leader whom President Bush telephoned, but President Putin left Mr Karimov out of his central Asian crisis conference call. Mr Putin sent his National Security Adviser, Mr Vladimir Rushailo, to the capitals of all five central Asian "stans". Mr Rushailo expressed satisfaction with meetings in the other four capitals, but not in Tashkent.
In exchange for offering the US bases, Mr Karimov may see his critics silenced, his opposition destroyed and pressure from Russia diminished. And he will rake in US aid and investment.
Yet Washington's sudden alliance with Mr Karimov is already creating concern - and comparisons with the last Shah of Iran. Uzbekistan combines all the ingredients of a Muslim country ripe for Islamic revolution: a corrupt elite, an enormous rift between rich and poor, high unemployment and blind repression of all political opposition.
Unlike Uzbekistan, impoverished Tajikistan has not shaken off Russian domination. Dushanbe dithered about offering its assistance, but President Emomali Rakhmonov - another former communist - eventually received a go-ahead from Moscow, and sources here say US aircraft are likely to use the former Soviet base at Kolab. Tajikstan could also provide the US with easy access to the United Front, the only armed opposition to the Taliban.
Tajikistan could hardly be more unstable. Four high-ranking officials have been assassinated here since April. In August, Rakhmon Sanginov, a former civil war leader known as Hitler, died in a shoot-out with government forces after his men took 15 German relief workers hostage.
Tajikistan's annual budget of $140 million comes from humanitarian relief, and per capita income today is less than a third what it was under the Soviets. The water system has collapsed and malaria, typhoid and brucellosis are rife.
A US State Department official warned Congress in June that "Tajikistan's collapse could easily lead to the spread of the radical Islamic, narco-terrorist system in Afghanistan north through Tajikistan to other states in the region."
Mr Putin's speech to NATO on Wednesday was viewed here not as a concession to the US but an attempt to capitalise on the crisis. Mr Putin demanded, albeit diplomatically, that NATO's expansion to the Baltic states be accompanied by more Russian involvement in a less military alliance.
In exchange for allowing the US to wage war in the former Soviet Union for the first time, Mr Putin would also like an end to the US missile defence programme, forgiveness of billions of dollars in debt and carte blanche to oppress the people of Chechnya. He may get all of the above. Then his chief concern will be avoiding a permanent US presence in central Asia.