Uzbekistan summons Russian envoy over politician's annexation remark

Uzbekistan's foreign ministry has summoned the Russian ambassador over a call by a Russian politician to annex the former Soviet republic, it said late on Thursday. Russian nationalist writer Zakhar Prilepin, who is co-chair of the "A Just Russia - For Truth" party, said this week he believed Russia should annex Uzbekistan and other countries whose citizens travel en masse to Russia for work. The Uzbek foreign ministry told Russian Ambassador Oleg Malginov on Thursday that Tashkent was "deeply concerned" about these "provocative" comments.