Khudaiberdy Orazov, a former Turkmen deputy prime minister and now an exiled opposition leader, told Russia\'s \"Nezavisimaya gazeta\" in a 14 March interview that change will come about in Turkmenistan only if the international community exerts heavy pressure on Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov. Orazov criticized the United States for lacking a \"thought-out policy\" on Turkmenistan and noted that such U.S. companies as General Electric, John Deere, and Boeing do business in the country. Orazov said that Russian policy, which he described as a conscious effort to ignore the plight of Turkmenistan\'s Russian minority in order to maintain energy cooperation, is \"short-sighted and doomed to fail.\" Nevertheless, Orazov said the \"harsher tone of recent statements\" by U.S. officials pointed to a \"shift...in American policy\" indicative of a harder line on Turkmenistan. But he concluded, \"When we speak of the need for pressure from the United States, we remember that the removal of Niyazov from political life is the task of the Turkmen people.\" (RFE/RL)