In a fairly quiet news week one thing to note is that last week Turkmen president, Saparmurat Turkmenbashi, sacked a border officer for drug realated offences. According to BBC monitoring, and reported on state TV, the president issued a resolution sacking the official due to the:

fact that a number of border guards at the Serhetabat border detachment of the State Border Service of Turkmenistan had been involved in the drugs trade, using weak control over them by the head of the Serhetabat border detachment, Tajibayev, who was wrongly appointed to this position by [Lt-Gen Orazberdi] Soltanov, head of the State Border Service of Turkmenistan, and proceeding from the fact that the prosecutor’s office of Turkmenistan has instituted a criminal case on this. Maj Kakajan Kakysovic Tajibayev has been dismissed from the duties of head of the Serhetabat border detachment of the State Border Service of Turkmenistan and of representative of the State Border Service of Turkmenistan in Serhetabat border area.

This is again a further example of the president’s rotating officials policy, maintained in all likelihood to keep any potential rivals on their toes.