TASHKENT/Uzbekistan, JUNE 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — An army of labourers clad in turquoise overalls swarmed over the Uzbek capital, intent on sprucing up the centre of this leafy city. The Latvian president was coming to town, and every blade of grass had to be in its right place.

Shielding their faces from a fierce sun, workers crouched on the grass, studiously weeding it by hand. More labourers were busy with the apparently fruitless task of hosing down the walls of the Ankhor Canal, which winds languidly through the capital behind the shiny civic buildings on Independence Square.

Heaven forbid that the visitor, Andris Berzins, should peer out of his motorcade and spot a flower out of place or a lingering spot of dust. It seemed that his host, Islam Karimov, could never live it down.

The grandiose Palace of Forums, the white marble monster that was due to be the venue for their summit, gleamed in the sunlight. There were no people strolling past the statue of the national hero, Tamurlane, in the park in front of the palace as the whole area had been closed off. Independence Square was also off limits. Hordes of green-uniformed police officers manned the perimeter, whistling officiously and shooing away any unsuspecting member of the public who dared approach.

In Uzbekistan, image is everything and when a European leader visits, its authoritarian ruler pulls out the stops to impress. It is a rare event. Few international leaders drop by since a photo call with Mr Karimov, vilified in the West as a dictator and serial human rights abuser, is tantamount to political suicide.

So the Latvian president’s arrival in Tashkent is important and yet dissenters mutter that all this Potemkin-style preening will do nothing to improve Uzbekistan’s pariah status.