Below is the translation of Abdulgamid’s post from the Russian-language blog.

Today we’ve learnt a very sad and thought-provoking news. Turkmenistan.ru is authorized to state that:

After 46 days of forced standstill, caused by abnormally cold and lengthy winter, the floating pontoon bridge between Turkmenabat and Farab has been again put into service.

We shall remind that this sophisticated hydrotechnical construction having more that 700 meters length had been disassembled on January 11 in order to pass huge masses of ice, but then the river suddenly frozen down. When the weather started to get warmer, the works on assemblage of the floating bridge began – 30 pontoons and 5 dry cargo barges were interconnected.

So, what’s so sad, you might want to ask. Well, the thing is that it was back on January 19 when the president of Turkmenistan ordered to finish all recovery works in a 3-day period.

They are more than one month late! And, interestingly, the guilty ones are not revealed, not punished, not even fired! What’s that - a democracy?!

But, seriously, this seemingly low-key fact demonstrates changes in the climate and atmosphere of the country. It would have been absolutely impossible under the previous Papa (allow me this little familiarity to the late, as he had been my Papa for 21 years). If the president said “Finish it in three days!”, they would have done it in one and a half. If not…

If not, then we won’t ever get to know it, especially from the official media. What we read now is not just a democracy; it’s, pardon my French, something like a freedom of speech.