the Karimov administration such as the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and the Commonwealth of Independent States gave the election a positive assessment. However, observers from the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe criticized the election as lacking a "genuine choice", while others deemed the election, a "political charade", given that all three of Karimov's rivals began their campaign speeches by singing Karimov's praises. Karimov was reelected for a new term in the 2015 presidential election. He won 90.39% of votes from a voter turnout of 91.08%. This was his third term under Uzbekistan's current constitution. The election was widely criticized by the western media and observers as being rigged even though monitoring missions sent by the Commonwealth of Independent States and the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, which include nations from the former USSR and China, deemed the election open and democratic. Foreign policy His isolationism defined foreign policy. Karimov was courted by the big powers for geopolitical leverage and Uzbekistan's gas supplies, but he kept all at arms' length, suspicious of Russia's post-colonial aims and the US-led "democratization" agenda. In 1999, he criticised the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) for paying too much attention to the protection of Human rights in Uzbekistan, rather than concentrating on the security issues facing Central Asia and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). "As long as war continues in Afghanistan, the threat to peace, security and democratic reforms in the neighbouring states of Central Asia will remain, and the source of international terrorism and its expansion well beyond the region's boundaries will be preserved." Criticism Human rights and press freedom Western states repeatedly criticised the Karimov administration's record on human rights and press freedom. In particular, Craig Murray, the British Ambassador from 2002 to 2004, described widespread torture, kidnapping, murder, rape by the police, financial corruption, religious persecution, censorship and other human rights abuses. This included the case of Karimov's security forces executing prisoners Muzafar Avazov and Khuzniddin Alimov by boiling them alive in 2002. Murray became noted within the British government for memos disagreeing with official UK and US policy, which was at the time to back up Karimov as part of the global war on terror. Uzbekistan was used for extraordinary rendition and for the air base in Karshi-Khanabad. Murray wrote a memoir about his experiences; Murder in Samarkand, retitled Dirty Diplomacy in the United States. The United Nations found