Our People > Sadokat Jalolova

Sadokat Jalolova

Journalist

Jalolova has worked as a reporter for some time in local newspapers and websites in Uzbekistan, and has enriched her knowledge in the field of journalism through courses at the University of Michigan, Johns Hopkins University, and the University of Amsterdam on the Coursera platform.

Articles

Cybersecurity

Uzbekistan’s Cerberus Wins Road to TechCrunch Regional Final

Uzbek startup Cerberus has won the regional final of Road to TechCrunch Startup Battlefield 2026, earning a ticket to San Francisco. For Uzbekistan’s young technology industry, the result is another sign of its push beyond the domestic market. For Cerberus, the challenge is now to convince international investors and clients that an AI tool developed in Tashkent to find vulnerabilities can compete in the global cybersecurity market. Cerberus took first place in the regional final on August 12. WeGlobal AI finished second, followed by LOOQ. Twenty-two startups reached the final after being selected from 726 applications from 39 countries. Uzbekistan was represented by six projects. The three winners will represent Central Eurasia at Startup Battlefield 200 in San Francisco. TechCrunch Disrupt 2026 will run from October 13 to 15. Twenty of the 200 companies will be selected to pitch on the main stage, with five advancing to the final round to compete for the $100,000 equity-free grand prize and the Disrupt Cup. The three regional winners will share a $100,000 investment pool, with Cerberus receiving $50,000. Competition rules state that each investment will be made on standard market terms in exchange for equity. Astana Hub Ventures and IT Park Ventures are providing the funding in partnership with Silkroad Innovation Hub. According to the organizers, the winners will also receive a combined $100,000 in OpenAI API credits. Cerberus founder and CEO Aziz Akhmedkhodjaev told The Times of Central Asia that two factors were behind the company’s success: the product and the team’s ability to explain the problem it solves. “I would say there are two main things here. The first, of course, is the product. Everyone understood that we had created something the market really needs,” he said. “I think that was the key to winning. I didn’t spend a single second of the pitch on anything other than clearly explaining the problem, how the solution works, and its potential.” Cerberus describes its product as an AI-powered cybersecurity system capable of finding vulnerabilities in corporate applications and IT infrastructure. Demand for such tools is growing alongside the spread of generative AI: companies and individual developers can write software faster, but the volume of code that needs to be checked for errors and potential attack vectors is also increasing. “Literally everyone is writing code with artificial intelligence now. Vulnerabilities, coding errors, and other weaknesses are appearing much faster,” Akhmedkhodjaev said. The company says Cerberus allows users to give its AI agent access to an application or IT infrastructure and task it with finding vulnerabilities. The agent can also test authentication and perform other security checks. According to Akhmedkhodjaev, however, using a general-purpose AI model for such work can itself create risks. “If you give Claude or another AI access to a vulnerability in a real bank, even the smallest mistake can lead to serious financial losses,” he said. The company says Cerberus is designed to restrict what its AI agent can do after identifying a weakness. “In our project, there is a...

1 hour ago

Birth Trends

Births Decline in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan as Central Asian Trends Diverge

Central Asia is commonly seen as a region with a young and rapidly growing population. The region’s population is still expanding, but birth trends are beginning to diverge. In the first half of 2026, births fell noticeably in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, while Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan recorded modest increases. Excluding Turkmenistan, about 711,300 children were born in the four other Central Asian countries during the six-month period, 5.5% fewer than a year earlier. Uzbek economist Mirkomil Kholboev highlighted the differences between the countries after comparing national statistics. “Births are declining in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, while they are increasing in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan,” Kholboev noted. Uzbekistan recorded the largest decline, with the number of births falling 7.9% to 373,389. Of those, about 192,900 were boys and 180,500 were girls. The decline is not new. In 2025, about 879,600 children were born in Uzbekistan, 5.1% fewer than a year earlier. That has not prevented the country’s population from continuing to grow rapidly, reaching 38.2 million at the beginning of 2026. The Times of Central Asia previously examined why Uzbekistan’s population continues to expand even as the number of births declines. A similar picture is emerging in Kazakhstan. A total of 149,774 births were registered from January through June, down 7.1% from the same period last year. Kazakhstan’s population nevertheless continues to grow and reached 20.59 million by July 1. Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are moving in the opposite direction for now. Kyrgyzstan recorded about 66,300 births in the first half of the year, up 2% from a year earlier. In Tajikistan, 121,810 children were born, an increase of 0.9%. The divergence is also notable in the wider post-Soviet context. Births have declined in Armenia and Azerbaijan as well. In Ukraine, 73,292 children were born in the first half of 2026, 16% fewer than during the same period a year earlier. Russia has sharply restricted the publication of demographic statistics since 2025, making current comparisons more difficult, although the last available figures also showed births continuing to decline. For Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the current figures do not mean their populations are shrinking. Births still substantially outnumber deaths, leaving both countries with strong natural population growth despite the decline in births. If these differences persist, their effects will extend well beyond demographic statistics. For a region with rapidly growing cities and large young populations, they could eventually mean different levels of demand for schools and universities. They could also affect labor markets and the number of new workers entering the economies of the four countries.

23 hours ago

Drone Attack

Nizhnekamsk Drone Attack: Families of Uzbek Victims to Receive Compensation

The families of Uzbek citizens killed in the August 10 drone attack on Nizhnekamsk in Russia’s Tatarstan region will receive compensation from the regional authorities. The attack killed 13 people, including eight Uzbek citizens who had been working in the city as construction workers. The family of each person killed will receive 2 million rubles, about $23,500, from the Tatarstan government. Payments will also be made to those injured, with the amount depending on the severity of their injuries. Tatarstan’s regional government will pay 2 million rubles to the family of each person killed. The companies that employed the victims will also pay compensation to their families and to injured workers. A temporary accommodation center has also been opened for residents whose homes require major repairs, and claims for property damage are being accepted there. According to updated figures from the Tatarstan authorities, 78 people sought medical assistance following the attack, with 27 hospitalized. Nizhnekamsk lies about 1,200 kilometers from Ukraine and is one of Russia’s major industrial centers, home to the TANECO oil refinery. Russian authorities said both industrial facilities and residential areas were hit and have opened a criminal investigation. Ukraine’s General Staff said its forces had struck the TANECO refinery and caused a fire. Uzbek authorities initially reported that seven citizens had been killed, before raising the figure to eight. One Tajik citizen was also among those killed. On August 12, the bodies of the eight deceased Uzbek citizens were repatriated. Officials in Tashkent said they were coordinating with their Russian counterparts to assist Uzbek citizens who remained hospitalized. For Uzbekistan, the Nizhnekamsk tragedy is another reminder of the risks faced by labor migrants in Russia. Large numbers of Central Asians work in major Russian industrial centers, while the expanding geographic reach of drone attacks is increasingly affecting cities far from the Russia-Ukraine front.

2 days ago

Public health

Nearly Two-Thirds of Adults in Uzbekistan Are Overweight or Obese

Nearly two-thirds of adults in Uzbekistan are overweight or obese. According to the latest World Health Organization data, the figure reached 64% in 2024, one of the highest rates among former Soviet republics. The WHO Global Health Observatory data, published by Our World in Data, cover adults aged 18 and older with a body mass index (BMI) of 25 or higher. The figures are age-standardized to allow comparisons between countries. Among former Soviet republics, only Georgia has a higher rate, at 67%. The figure is 63% in Azerbaijan, 61% in Moldova, 59% in Latvia, and 58% in both Turkmenistan and Tajikistan. The rate is around 56% in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, Armenia, Ukraine, and Estonia. It stands at 55% in Belarus and 54% in Lithuania. Uzbekistan is also well above the global average. According to WHO, 43% of adults worldwide were overweight in 2022. This figure includes adults with obesity. WHO defines overweight among adults as a BMI of 25 or higher, while obesity begins at a BMI of 30. WHO classifies obesity as a chronic, relapsing disease rather than simply a consequence of lifestyle. Body weight is influenced by diet, physical activity, genetics, and neurobiology. Access to healthy food also plays a role, as do market forces and the surrounding environment. A high BMI increases the risk of cardiovascular disease and type 2 diabetes and is also linked to several types of cancer. Several years ago, Mavludakhon Hamzayevna Adhamjonova, a member of the Legislative Chamber, cited the results of a national study that found 10.7 million people in the country did not follow a healthy lifestyle. Among those surveyed, 38% had high blood pressure and 8.4% had elevated blood sugar. A further 26% did not get enough physical activity. Rising levels of overweight and obesity also carry an economic cost. In 2023, Uzbekistan’s Center for Economic Research and Reforms, citing estimates by the World Obesity Federation, reported that the annual economic impact of overweight and obesity in Uzbekistan could reach $21.6 billion by 2060. That would amount to about $490 per person and 4.7% of projected GDP.

6 days ago

Historical Archives

Berlin Archive Reveals Rare Records of Uzbekistan’s Past

A centuries-old archive in Berlin holds documents on Central Asia from two pivotal periods: the Russian Empire’s expansion into Turkestan in the second half of the 19th century and the first decades of Soviet rule. The materials include diplomatic correspondence and German accounts of the Turkestan-Siberian Railway. Other papers concern Soviet policies toward nomadic communities and a student from Tashkent who lived in Germany in the early 1930s. The materials are held by the Prussian Secret State Archives (Geheimes Staatsarchiv Preußischer Kulturbesitz, GStA PK) in Berlin. Muhayyo Isakova, a senior researcher at the National Archive of Uzbekistan, identified documents concerning present-day Uzbekistan and neighboring territories. Despite its name, GStA PK is a public archive. Its origins date to the 13th century, and it has occupied its purpose-built home in Berlin’s Dahlem district since 1924. One of the earliest groups of documents dates to 1865, when the Russian Empire was expanding into Central Asia. Russian forces captured Tashkent in June of that year. In 1867, the city became the capital of the newly established Turkestan Governor-Generalship. The archive preserves official correspondence involving Karl Hermann von Thile, then an undersecretary in the Prussian Foreign Ministry.. The documents describe political developments in Turkestan and related diplomatic affairs, offering a Prussian perspective on Russia’s expansion into Central Asia. Other materials date from the early Soviet period. German publicist and researcher Georg Cleinow traveled through Central Asia in 1928 and 1929. He visited Tashkent and Bukhara before continuing through Semirechye to Alma-Ata. Cleinow paid particular attention to the Turkestan-Siberian Railway, a major infrastructure project of the early Soviet period. His reports addressed the railway’s geopolitical significance and Soviet policies to settle nomadic communities. They also covered land and water reforms and national-territorial delimitation. Cleinow later examined the railway in his book Roter Imperialismus: Eine Studie über die Verkehrsprobleme der Sowjetunion, published in Berlin by Julius Springer in 1931. Two sections deal directly with the railway, including Die Turksib als soziales Experiment (The Turksib as a Social Experiment). The papers of German Orientalist Carl Heinrich Becker, who was Prussia’s minister of culture, contain correspondence about Vali Kayum Khan, a Tashkent native who came to Germany to study in 1922. One letter, dated March 30, 1933, was written by Becker’s son Walter shortly after his father’s death. It says Kayum Khan had previously received Becker’s support but was left in serious financial difficulty after the Nazis came to power. Walter Becker sought funding for Kayum Khan and explored how he might continue his education outside Germany. The letter mentions an appeal to Stephen Duggan, a founder of the Institute of International Education, for help arranging further study in the United States. Kayum Khan’s activities during World War II make the 1933 letter especially notable: he worked with Nazi Germany and led the United States Turkestan Committee. The correspondence offers a little-known view of Central Asia’s connections with German academic circles in the 1920s and 1930s. Alongside the 19th-century diplomatic reports, Cleinow’s papers show how German officials and researchers viewed the region during two different...

7 days ago

Direct Flights

Etihad Flights to Uzbekistan Begin Daily as Almaty Service Moves to 2027

Etihad Airways has launched daily service between Abu Dhabi and Tashkent, adding Uzbekistan to its operated network. A direct service to Almaty that had been scheduled for March 2026 is now expected in 2027. Etihad's inaugural outbound flight departed Abu Dhabi on August 9 and arrived in Tashkent early on August 10. The return flight left later that morning, and the route is operated with an Airbus A320. Etihad senior vice president Jurriaan Pieter Stelder told The Times of Central Asia that the airline had studied Uzbekistan's aviation market for several years before entering it. He said the growth of local airlines and established business demand led Etihad to begin with a higher frequency than it might use in other new markets. Etihad expects the route to perform in line with its network, which recorded an average passenger load factor of 89.7% in the first two months of 2026. Stelder said the carrier expects to fill at least 140 of roughly 160 seats on each leg. The route is supported by a codeshare agreement with Uzbekistan Airways that took effect in May. Etihad customers can buy a single ticket through Tashkent to eight domestic destinations, while Uzbekistan Airways passengers can connect to Abu Dhabi on the Etihad service. The partnership allows Etihad to test demand for Samarkand through Uzbekistan Airways. “We know there is particularly strong demand for Samarkand,” Stelder said. He added that Etihad could eventually operate another route in Uzbekistan if the market grows. Commercial ties between Uzbekistan and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) have grown rapidly, including through civil aviation cooperation. In January 2025, the two governments set targets to increase bilateral trade by a factor of ten by 2030 and raise the bilateral investment portfolio to $50 billion. Etihad Chief Digital Officer Frank Meyer said the relationship already supports business travel, while tourism demand needs further development. He added that Etihad would hire local staff for airport operations and sales, while local contractors would handle ground services. Etihad already reaches Kazakhstan through a codeshare with Air Astana. The agreement allows customers to book Air Astana-operated connections through Almaty and Astana. Etihad announced plans for its own Almaty route in July 2025, with eight weekly flights scheduled from March 16, 2026. The launch did not take place, but Stelder said the carrier had not abandoned the destination. “We expect to start flying to Kazakhstan, specifically Almaty, sometime in 2027,” he said. “For now, we decided it was better to start with Tashkent.”

1 week ago

Environmental Assessment

Uzbekistan’s $5 Billion Sea Breeze Resort Awaits Environmental Review

Uzbekistan’s environmental authorities have still not received the full set of documents for Sea Breeze Uzbekistan, a controversial $5 billion resort planned on the shore of the Charvak Reservoir. Azerbaijani businessman Emin Agalarov presented the project to Uzbek authorities in late 2024, and Agalarov Development is participating in the venture. Although the government approved the investment project in August 2025 and public hearings were held in January, key technical documents required for the second stage of the state environmental review remain outstanding. Sea Breeze is planned to cover 577 hectares on the eastern shore of Charvak, around 80 kilometers from Tashkent. The year-round resort is expected to include hotels and residential developments, along with dining and entertainment facilities. Gayrat Mukhamedov, director of the State Center for Environmental Expertise, told Gazeta.uz that “only the first stage of the procedure,” involving the selection and allocation of land, has been completed. The center has not yet received the documents needed to assess the environmental impact of the complex itself. The location has been one of the main sources of controversy surrounding the project. Charvak lies in the foothills of the Western Tien Shan and remains one of Uzbekistan’s most popular recreational areas. After the Sea Breeze plans were published, environmentalists and civic activists called for more information about the potential impact of development on the reservoir. In the summer of 2025, the #SaveChorvoq campaign emerged on social media. On August 1, 2025, the Cabinet of Ministers approved the investment project. It is being implemented by Sea Breeze Uzbekistan LLC, a joint venture established with the participation of Agalarov Development. One of the conditions is protecting Charvak from pollution. Wastewater must be taken outside the coastal zone and sent to a centralized treatment system, with no discharge into the reservoir. The requirement applies both during construction and during the subsequent operation of the resort. Mukhamedov said the environmental review center is still waiting for final technical data on the treatment system, including its capacity, as well as definitive figures for the resort’s accommodation capacity and the number of cottages, homes, and other facilities. Public hearings on the environmental impact assessment for Sea Breeze were held in Bostanlyk District on January 23, 2026. The issues scheduled for discussion included the project’s impact on water, air, and soil, waste management, preservation of green areas, and environmental monitoring. At the hearings, project representatives discussed the future sewage system, wastewater treatment, and measures to preserve biodiversity. The plan envisaged wastewater being collected through a centralized sewage system for treatment away from the reservoir. The public hearings, however, do not replace the second stage of the state environmental review. More than six months later, the technical documents for that stage have still not been submitted. Mukhamedov said the next phase will depend in part on seasonal studies by Uzbekistan’s Institute of Botany and Institute of Zoology into the possible effects on local flora and fauna. The work is expected to span autumn, winter, and spring, while the environmental review...

1 week ago

Russia's War in Ukraine

How the Russia–Ukraine War Is Reshaping Central Asia’s Geopolitical Balance

More than four years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the conflict continues to alter political and economic relations across the former Soviet space. In an interview with The Times of Central Asia, Uzbek political scientist Mukhtor Nazirov examined Moscow’s evolving regional role, Central Asia’s search for wider external partnerships, and the areas in which Russia remains difficult to replace. “The war changed Russia,” Nazirov said. “It became more closed, more militarized, and its political logic increasingly became military. Central Asian countries suddenly found themselves dealing with a Russia that was no longer the same as it had been before the war.” Before 2022, Russia’s relations with Central Asia rested on long-established political, economic, and security ties. Since the invasion, international isolation and wartime pressures have complicated that relationship. “The war consumed everything,” Nazirov explained. “It influenced not only politics and the economy, but also public thinking, the country’s openness, its ideology, and the overall direction of the state. As Russia changed during the war, its dialogue with Central Asian countries became increasingly difficult.” “Central Asian states gained a moral justification to look for other options,” he said. “Russia is no longer the Russia it used to be.” Russia nevertheless remains deeply embedded in the region’s economy. Infrastructure, logistics networks, export routes, and labor migration still bind Central Asian states to the Russian market. Kazakhstan exports most of its oil through Russia’s Novorossiysk port, while trade from Uzbekistan and other countries continues to rely heavily on northern corridors. Millions of Central Asian citizens also work in Russia. “The economic foundation still exists,” Nazirov told TCA. “Much of Central Asia remains part of an economic structure that was formed during the Soviet period. Infrastructure is shared, and many export routes still pass through Russia.” However, the durability of Moscow’s influence is under closer scrutiny as other powers expand their regional presence. “Political closeness alone is not enough,” Nazirov said. “Any partnership eventually comes down to economics. If Russia wants to remain influential, it must have a strong economic foundation. If it cannot provide that, then others will naturally begin filling the gap.” China and the European Union have expanded their economic engagement as sanctions and wartime demands have constrained Russia. Interest has also grown in the Middle Corridor, or Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, which offers an alternative to routes through Russia. “The rhetoric surrounding the Middle Corridor became much stronger during the war,” he said. “The project already existed, but the war created momentum.” The EU’s Global Gateway initiative and new connectivity financing have given Central Asian governments additional channels for trade, investment, and transport. “This space is being filled partly by China and partly by the European Union,” he said. “They are proposing alternatives, and naturally Central Asian countries are turning toward those opportunities.” Russia remains the main destination for Central Asian labor migrants, although governments are pursuing employment opportunities in South Korea, Europe, and the Gulf states. “I would not say diversification has already taken place,” Nazirov...

2 weeks ago

Space Technology

Uzbekistan’s AI Module Reaches Orbit Aboard Samarqand-2028 Satellite

A Chinese-built Earth observation satellite carrying artificial intelligence developed by Uzbek specialists was launched from a sea platform off China’s Shandong province on August 5. The Samarqand-2028 satellite was launched alongside Lampung-1, another Earth observation satellite from China’s STAR.VISION Aerospace. A livestream showed the rocket lifting off from the platform. STAR.VISION developed Samarqand-2028, while specialists from Uzbekistan’s national space agency, Uzbekcosmos, created its onboard AI module. Uzbekcosmos said this was the first time Uzbek specialists had participated in developing artificial intelligence for a satellite. Samarqand-2028 carries a hyperspectral sensor that records reflected light in 22 wavelength bands. A conventional color image records visible light in only three broad bands, while the additional bands can reveal details difficult to see with the human eye. Uzbekcosmos plans to use the images to create national maps of cotton and wheat cultivation and make initial assessments of air quality. As The Times of Central Asia reported on August 4, processing images onboard the satellite could reduce the amount of data transmitted to Earth and allow useful information to reach officials more quickly. Samarqand-2028 is separate from Uzbekistan’s first national scientific satellite, Mirzo Ulugbek. Seven Uzbek engineers studying at Kyushu Institute of Technology in Japan have begun developing the 6U satellite, which is scheduled for launch in 2028. The program is intended to train specialists and establish a domestic satellite engineering team. The next stage will be commissioning Samarqand-2028 and testing whether its AI module functions as intended in orbit. Its practical value will depend on whether Uzbek institutions can convert the imagery into useful information for agriculture and environmental monitoring.

2 weeks ago

Artificial intelligence

Uzbekistan AI: Can Its Tech Boom Deliver an AI Economy?

Uzbekistan has spent the past several years positioning itself as a fast-growing Central Asian market for IT outsourcing. The government is now seeking to build an artificial intelligence economy on that export-oriented technology sector. While the state is investing in computing infrastructure and public-sector projects, Tashkent is looking to private technology companies to drive much of AI's commercial adoption. The strategy has produced visible activity, but whether it can develop into a sustainable AI economy remains an open question. Over the past five years, the government has expanded IT Park and its incentives, simplified rules for employing foreign specialists, and introduced tax breaks for resident companies. As digital service exports have grown, artificial intelligence has increasingly been positioned as the sector's next stage. According to IT Park, its resident companies were exporting services to more than 90 countries after the first seven months of 2025. North America accounted for 45% of exports, while the Asia-Pacific region and the Commonwealth of Independent States accounted for 26%, and the European Union and the United Kingdom for 24%. The figures show the sector's geographical reach. That export base gives Uzbekistan a plausible route into AI. Local companies can use existing engineering and outsourcing capacity to develop products for foreign clients, while private companies and software exports hold a prominent role in the government's commercial strategy. Uzbekistan has not yet built a fully fledged AI economy. Under targets set by an October 2025 presidential decree, at least 100 AI projects are to be implemented by the end of 2026, AI laboratories are to open at 15 universities, and more than $1 billion in foreign investment is to be attracted for AI infrastructure by 2030. These targets show the scale of the government's ambitions. Success will depend less on the number of approved programs than on whether they produce commercially viable AI products for international markets. Microsoft's Global AI Diffusion in Q1 2026 report estimated that 7.2% of Uzbekistan's working-age population used a generative AI product during the first quarter, compared with a global average of 17.8%. Uzbekistan was nevertheless among several Central Asian countries recording rapid growth from a relatively low base. Government policy is now shifting from creating favorable conditions toward supporting commercially oriented companies. In 2026, Uzbekistan launched the President AI Award, a national program combining startup acceleration with performance-based investment. Financing is linked to measurable business results and companies' ability to bring products to market. The government is also building a venture funding structure for technology startups. IT Park Ventures, established with the support of the Ministry of Digital Technologies, invests in technology startups, with artificial intelligence, fintech, DeepTech, and education technology among its priority sectors. The fund also helps portfolio companies enter international markets and connect with foreign investors. One Uzbek AI company active in this ecosystem is Repli AI. In March 2026, the startup secured $375,000 in cloud credits from Microsoft and Google to further develop its AI-powered sales and customer service platform. These were service credits rather than...

2 weeks ago

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