Uzbekistan, officially the Republic of Uzbekistan is a doubly landlocked country in Central Asia, formerly part of the Soviet Union. It shares borders with Kazakhstan to the west and to the north, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to the east, and Afghanistan and Turkmenistan to the south. Its capital is called Tashkent (Toshkent. It is a republic; authoritarian presidential rule, with little power outside the executive branch.