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TASHKENT (TCA) — The son of Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of the late longtime Uzbek President Islam Karimov, has asked for political asylum in Great Britain, RFE/RL reported. Continue reading
TASHKENT (TCA) — Uzbekistan's former interior minister has been detained, according to two law enforcement officials in the Central Asian state, though it remains unclear on what charges, RFE/RL's Uzbek Service reports. Continue reading
ASTANA (TCA) — State power succession remains a relevant issue in Kazakhstan, and given the country’s dominant economic position in Central Asia, smooth transition in this country is vitally important for the entire region and beyond. We are republishing this analysis on the issue, originally published by Stratfor: Continue reading
TASHKENT (TCA) — The year 2017 was marked in Uzbekistan by the President’s efforts to reform the tightly-controlled economy and financial sector, liberalize the internal political sphere, and improve the country’s tense relations with neighboring Central Asian states. Although much has been done on the domestic and foreign fronts, it is yet to be done much more to bring in the real changes to Uzbekistan, and to make such changes irreversible. We are republishing this article by Umida Hashimova on the issue, originally published by The Jamestown Foundation’s Eurasia Daily Monitor: Continue reading
ASTANA (TCA) — The year 2017 was marked in Kazakhstan by the authorities’ efforts to lay the ground for a smooth state power succession and to overcome the country’s economic and financial problems accumulated in the recent years. We are republishing this article by George Voloshin on the issue, originally published by The Jamestown Foundation’s Eurasia Daily Monitor: Continue reading
TASHKENT (TCA) — In Central Asia — and Uzbekistan is no exception, state power succession is inevitably associated with property redistribution with new elites coming to power and taking control of lucrative businesses. We are republishing this article on the issue, originally published by EurasiaNet.org: In a speech full of surprises over the weekend, the president of Uzbekistan dropped an interesting hint about the fate of the former ruling family. On January 5, Shavkat Mirziyoyev made a reference to the sudden bonanza of revenue coming into the state coffers from the Abu Sahiy wholesale market in Tashkent. Where in the first half of December alone, the market generated around $4.4 million in taxes, the monthly amount before was a relatively meager $625,000, he said. The discrepancy sparked a swell of online commentary and even provoked a raised eyebrow from a newsreader on the state-run rolling news channel, Uzbekiston, who wondered out loud “where all that money had been going every month?” “This is an example of how we need clear rules and ways to enforce [those rules] if the economy is going to develop,” the newsreader said. Mirziyoyev’s remarks were an unambiguous shot across the bow of family members of his predecessor, Islam Karimov. Abu Sahiy wholesale market was established in 2006 by Timur Tillyaev, the husband of Karimov’s youngest daughter, Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva. Tillyaev turned Abu Sahiy into the largest commercial center in Uzbekistan — a trade ground sprawling over 250,000 square meters. The market served as a clearing house for importing goods from China and Turkey and benefited, according to Tillyaev’s detractors, from highly beneficial conditions. Most Uzbek businesspeople have typically found it extremely difficult to land their hands on foreign currency in hard cash, but Tillyaev has long reputedly been able to buy dollars aplenty, and at the official rate. Before the government’s big bang currency reforms, enacted in September, the difference between official and black market dollar exchange rates was more than twofold. The main source of chatter about the Tillyaev family’s fortune has to date come from Karimov’s more famous daughter, Gulnara Karimova, who is now in custody in Uzbekistan on corruption charges. In December 2013, following a falling-out with the family, Karimova, who had herself benefited handsomely from her connections, claimed in an interview to Turkish newspaper Hurriyet that her brother-in-law was running Abu Sahiy without paying any taxes. The market, she said, had a monthly turnover of around $20 million. The claims made a small splash at the time, although it was read as little more than an outburst of sibling feuding. More attention is now being paid to Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva. The Black Sea, a Romanian-based online magazine specializing in deep dives on allegations of financial wrongdoing, dwelled at length on Karimova-Tillyaeva’s wealth in an article in October. Among other things, the website alleged that Abu Sahiy was supplied by a Dubai-based trading company Securtrade. “Securtrade undertakes most of its business with dozens of shell companies registered in tax havens,” the Black Sea journalists...
