MOSCOW (AP) — Uzbekistan is going through the motions of a presidential election this weekend, with a crushing win for its longtime leader a foregone conclusion, but the long-term future of the Central Asian nation is still far from certain. In the previous election in 2007, he won 91 percent of the vote. Since gaining independence in 1991, Uzbekistan has pursued a policy of economic self-reliance and sought to balance its diplomatic relations with the West and Russia, playing them against one another. Russian news agency Interfax last week cited an Uzbek security services analyst as saying that authorities are worried by reports that militants from the Islamic State group have mustered in northern Afghanistan. In an apparent acknowledgment of that danger, the United States announced in January that it had given Uzbekistan more than 300 armored vehicles to help boost border security and combat drug trafficking.