A British NGO, Global Witness, has recently published a report (pdf format) about the Ukrainian-Turkmen gas trade. Among the accusations contained in the report is the fact that President Saparmurat Niyazov has keeping earnings from natural gas sales under his own personal control in overseas and off-budget accounts.
In support of this charge, Global Witness […]
A recent report on the Deutsche Welle website attributes the latest wave of purges to an ongoing campaign to uproot corruption in the Office of General Prosecutor. President Saparmurat Niyazov personally announced the nature of the criminal charges being brought against the former General Prosecutor Gurbanbibi Atajanova during an expanded senior officials’ meeting at […]
The Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights (TIHR) has published an interesting article about the current state of the armed forces in Turkmenistan. Contrary to the position adopted by President Saparmurat Niyazov in 1991, when he argued that no more one percent of the population needed to be enrolled in the army, TIHR estimates that […]
As was fully expected, the former Turkmen General Prosecutor Gurbanbiby Atajanova has been arrested on charges of bribery. In customary fashion, she was made to confess to the crimes she has been charged with in a live television broadcast, according to a Reuters report. In the course of the confession, given directly before President […]
Russian gas company Gazprom has turned the screws on Ukraine by negotiating the purchase of all Europe-bound from Turkmenistan, according to a Turkmen State Information Agency report. That possibility was raised during talks held Monday between the officials of the Turkmen Ministry of Oil and Gas and a Gazprom delegation headed by deputy CEO […]
Further to a lively debate conducted on this site, Dennis de Tray, Country Director of the World Bank for the five Central Asian Republics from 2001 to 2005, has also proffered his position on the proposed EU trading agreement with Turkmenistan. While recognising the merits of engagment he is sceptical about the worth that […]
Once again, Deutsche Welle has returned to the crisis over food shortages in Turkmenistan. What follows below is a translation of the Russian-language transcript:
The Turkmen government has failed to avoid the deepening crisis over the shortage of bread and flour. This information has been supplied to Deutsce Welle by sources in the Mary velyat.
As […]
An event that was anticipated in the wake of the recent dismissal of former General Prosecutor Gurbanbiby Atajanova appears to have been confirmed by a report on the Gundogar website. A brief article on the site suggests that Atajanova was arrested one day after her resignation on the grounds of poor health. Although the […]
In an article in Vremya Novostei, Arkady Dubnov gives some of the background detail to the release of Gurbandurdy Durdykuliev. According to Dubnov, the Turkmen authorities denied for a long time that Durdykuliev had even been put in a psychiatric facility. The Turkmen ambassador to the OSCE, Esen Aydogdiyev, had declared at Permanent Council […]
It seems that the opposition groups, Watan and the Republican Party of Turkmenistan, are willing to put their heads above the parapet of domestic politics in Turkmenistan. Both parties have signed a declaration stating that they will stand in the forthcoming July local elections, the Genes elections. Arguing that any previous elections in […]
