Uzbekistan - The Times Of Central Asia

Viewing results 49 - 54 of 2360

Tourism Development

Uzbekistan Tourism Plan Targets Caves and a Salt Mine

Uzbekistan has approved a plan to develop nine caves and a salt mine for tourism. The program announced by the Tourism Committee on October 5 covers development work through 2028 at sites in Jizzakh, Samarkand, Surkhandarya, and Kashkadarya. Alongside work on visitor routes, regional authorities are to help nearby residents establish family guesthouses, while local guides will be able to take specialist training courses. Travel and tourism contributed $8.3 billion to Uzbekistan’s economy in 2025, equivalent to 6% of GDP, according to World Travel & Tourism Council estimates. Annual forums for domestic and foreign investors are planned from 2027 to attract private funding. Boybuloq in southern Surkhandarya, one of the selected caves, has deep shafts and water-filled passages that make exploration technically demanding. Under the September 30 government resolution, the Ministry of Emergency Situations has three months to draft rules for visits, and a certification system for guides and instructors is due in June 2027. Among the other sites is Teshiktosh in the same region, where the discovery of a Neanderthal child’s remains in 1938 established the cave’s archaeological importance. Construction at sites with cultural heritage status will require approval from the Cultural Heritage Agency, while work in protected natural areas must be cleared by environmental authorities. Khojaikon, the selected salt mine in Sherabad district, has salt-coated galleries leading to an observation deck overlooking the Surkhandarya mountains. The roadmap sets April 2027 as the deadline for approving tourist routes. The completed visitor infrastructure is scheduled to enter service in January 2029.

Language Dispute

Uzbekistan’s Centrum Air Apologizes After Uzbek-Language Dispute

Uzbekistan's Centrum Air has apologized to a passenger removed from a flight after a dispute over his request to be addressed in Uzbek. The airline initially accused the man of aggressive behavior but later acknowledged that the flight attendant had been at fault. The incident occurred on October 5 during boarding for flight C6468 from Samara to Tashkent. Daryo reported that a passenger named Komiljon had asked a flight attendant to speak to him in Uzbek after she requested his boarding pass in Russian. According to Komiljon, an argument followed, and the captain refused to allow him to travel. In an October 5 statement, Centrum Air disputed his account, alleging that he had behaved aggressively and insulted the flight attendant. It said he had disrupted boarding and defended the captain's decision on safety grounds. The airline also said it was considering contacting law enforcement. Komiljon denied insulting the employee. Centrum Air said its flight attendants speak Uzbek, Russian, and English and can communicate with passengers in their preferred language. Komiljon traveled from Samara to Moscow before taking another flight to Tashkent, incurring additional expenses. Following a review, senior airline executive Ma'murjon Mamadaliyev acknowledged that the flight attendant had been wrong and had admitted her mistake. He said the airline would cover the passenger's additional travel costs. In a later video, the flight attendant apologized to Komiljon in Uzbek, according to Batafsil.uz. Komiljon accepted the apology and said that he had received compensation. The airline's later statement did not clarify whether it had withdrawn its original allegations about the passenger's behavior.

Victim Compensation

Most Compensation for Uzbekistan’s Dok-1 Max Victims Remains Unpaid

Families affected by Uzbekistan's Dok-1 Max poisoning scandal are still owed most of the 78 billion soums awarded in compensation, more than two years after the court verdict, according to the Bureau of Compulsory Enforcement. The case dates back to late 2022, when children across Uzbekistan fell ill after taking contaminated cold medicines, including Dok-1 Max, manufactured by the Indian pharmaceutical company Marion Biotech. Laboratory tests confirmed that samples of Dok-1 Max and another syrup, Ambronol, contained dangerous levels of diethylene glycol and/or ethylene glycol, toxic substances that can cause severe kidney damage and death. By February 2024, the medicines had been linked to the deaths of 68 children. On February 26, 2024, a court in Tashkent sentenced 23 defendants in connection with the scandal, including pharmaceutical executives and officials responsible for drug testing and regulation. Sardor Kariyev, a former head of Uzbekistan's pharmaceutical development agency and state drug testing center, received an 18-year prison sentence. Singh Raghvendra Pratap, director of Quramax Medical, the company that imported the medicines into Uzbekistan, was sentenced to 20 years. An investigation by the country's Anti-Corruption Agency identified failures in drug registration, certification, and oversight that had created opportunities for corruption. The issue of unpaid compensation has resurfaced following complaints on social media that payments had stopped. In a statement reported on October 7, the bureau said it was continuing efforts to recover money from Kariyev and other convicted defendants. Enforcement officers seized Kariyev's properties in Tashkent. A nonresidential building on Furqat Street was sold at an electronic auction for 793 million soums (about $67,000). Residential properties in the Chilanzar district, valued at a combined 7.1 billion soums (about $601,000), remain up for auction. According to the bureau, proceeds from the property sale, together with money paid by Kariyev's relatives, have enabled the distribution of 16.7 billion soums ($1.41 million) to the claimants. The recovered funds were divided equally among them. That leaves 61.3 billion soums (about $5.19 million) outstanding. The bureau has given no indication of when the families might receive the remaining compensation.

Espionage

German Spy Scandal Puts Central Asian and Caucasus Espionage Cases in Focus

The arrest of former German intelligence chief August Hanning has drawn attention to Azerbaijan. German journalists reported that he allegedly had contacts with Azerbaijan's intelligence service. Baku rejected the allegations, while German prosecutors have not confirmed any Azerbaijani involvement. In recent years, citizens of Central Asia and the South Caucasus have repeatedly been implicated in espionage and treason cases. The accused and suspects include former intelligence chiefs, military personnel, officials, scientists, and foreign nationals. Some have received lengthy prison sentences, while others remain under investigation. In many cases, information about alleged foreign intelligence connections is limited to media reports. German Scandal and Ties to Baku On October 6, 2026, the German authorities detained 80-year-old August Hanning, who headed the Federal Intelligence Service (BND) from 1998 to 2005. Former BND employee Manfred D. was also taken into custody. Hanning is suspected of attempted treason, obtaining state secrets, and acting on behalf of a foreign intelligence service. Manfred D. is suspected of assisting in the alleged offenses. Both were placed in pretrial detention on October 7. According to federal prosecutors, in the spring of 2010, Hanning reached an agreement with his former subordinate to obtain intelligence documents in exchange for money. By June 2022, Manfred D. had allegedly provided him with approximately 2,000 documents, including classified materials. By then, Hanning was working as a private consultant and, investigators believe, used the information for commercial purposes. According to German media reports, the documents included materials on Iran's nuclear program, Russia's armed forces, and information received from partner intelligence agencies. Investigators also allege that Hanning prepared an analytical memorandum for an officer of a foreign intelligence service. It remains unknown whether the intended recipient received it. Der Spiegel reported alleged contacts between Hanning and a representative of Azerbaijani intelligence. The investigative outlet CORRECTIV examined his longstanding ties to Baku, including his participation in the German-Azerbaijani Forum. German prosecutors have not identified the foreign intelligence service involved in the investigation. Azerbaijan rejected reports of its involvement and warned of damage to relations with Berlin. An Azerbaijani official also claimed that German intelligence representatives had assured Baku that the investigation was unrelated to Azerbaijan, although this has not been publicly confirmed by the German authorities. The classified documents were discovered during a separate investigation. In September 2025, police searched Hanning's premises in connection with the alleged abduction of the children of German businesswoman Christina Block from Denmark. The discovery led to a separate criminal investigation opened in May 2026. Hanning's lawyer acknowledged that his client possessed confidential documents, but rejected allegations he had passed on information to Germany's detriment or received payment for doing so. Kazakhstan’s Espionage and State Secrets Cases In Kazakhstan, one of the best-known treason cases of recent times involved the prosecution of China expert Konstantin Syroyezhkin, who worked for many years at the Kazakhstan Institute for Strategic Studies under the president. Syroyezhkin was detained in February 2019 and sentenced to ten years in prison in October. The trial was held behind closed...

Migrants in Russia

They Went to Russia for Work and Ended Up at War: How Central Asians Enter the Russian Military

Twenty-year-old Ainabek Keldibek went to Russia expecting to work as a security guard. Relatives of other young Kazakh men say they had taken jobs at a sausage factory and a poultry farm. But according to reports aired in early October on Kazakhstan’s KTK television channel, the men later ended up in or near the combat zone in Ukraine. Some appeared in videos wearing Russian military uniforms and asked Kazakhstan to help bring them home. On October 7, relatives of Kazakh citizens who had reportedly ended up in Russia’s military visited the Foreign Ministry in Astana to seek help bringing them home. Lawyer Meirman Shekeyev, who accompanied the families, said his list had grown from eight to 21 people as more relatives contacted him. The same day, ministry spokesperson Zhanbolat Ussenov said officials were checking appeals and would send Russia a list of citizens after verification. Negotiations over their return were underway, he said. Exactly how the men ended up in the Russian military remains unclear. One family said their relative had already been wounded, while KTK reported that the circumstances surrounding the signing of the military contracts have not been independently established. For now, much of what is known comes from the men themselves and their relatives. Their stories raise a broader question that neither Moscow nor the capitals of Central Asia have fully answered: how many people from the region have ended up in the Russian military, and under what circumstances did they get there? Nearly 13,000, According to a Ukrainian Database Russia does not publish comprehensive statistics on foreign contract soldiers. Central Asian governments have only fragmented data from criminal cases, consular appeals, and reports from relatives. The most detailed country-by-country breakdown comes from the Ukrainian government project I Want to Live. By May 2026, the project said it had identified 12,919 citizens of the five Central Asian states who had signed contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defense: 4,955 citizens of Uzbekistan, 3,489 of Tajikistan, 2,420 of Kazakhstan, 1,474 of Kyrgyzstan, and 581 of Turkmenistan. These figures cannot be regarded as complete or independently verified. I Want to Live operates within Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War, and Ukraine is a party to the war. In addition, 12,919 is a cumulative figure, not the number of Central Asians currently at the front. Some may have been killed or captured, completed their service, returned home, or obtained Russian citizenship. Another major estimate comes from the International Federation for Human Rights (FIDH), Truth Hounds, and the Kazakhstan International Bureau for Human Rights and Rule of Law. Their report estimates that Russia recruited at least 27,000 foreign nationals from more than 130 countries after February 2022. More than 10,000 of them, according to the study, came from Central Asia. The study is based on open sources, consultations with Ukrainian authorities and experts, and interviews with 16 prisoners of war and former Russian servicemen. There are no comparable publicly available Russian statistics, meaning it is impossible to...

Tourism Promotion

MrBeast to Meet Fans in Tashkent on First Central Asia Trip

American YouTuber Jimmy Donaldson, better known as MrBeast, will visit Tashkent on October 9 on his first trip to Central Asia, Uzbekistan’s Art and Culture Development Foundation announced. The visit is being organized by the foundation in cooperation with the country’s Tourism Committee. Donaldson has a combined audience of more than half a billion subscribers across his YouTube channels. His main channel alone has around 520 million subscribers. He is known for big-budget videos built around elaborate challenges, competitions, and large cash prizes. In Tashkent, 200 fans over the age of 18 will be selected at random to attend a public event with Donaldson. The program will include interactive games and a trivia competition, with prizes for the winners. The foundation has warned fans about fake links and accounts seeking to exploit the visit. It advised them to register only through the official portal, which does not require payment, bank card details, or account passwords. MrBeast’s arrival gives Uzbekistan a rare appearance on the itinerary of one of the world’s biggest digital entertainers. Tashkent has increasingly sought international cultural and entertainment events as part of its push to build the country’s creative economy and attract younger foreign audiences.