Steve LeVine covers foreign affairs for BusinessWeek. He previously was correspondent for Central Asia and the Caucasus for The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times for 11 years. His first book, The Oil and the Glory, a history of the former Soviet Union through the lens of oil, was published in October 2007. Putin’s Labyrinth, his new book, profiles Russia through the lives and deaths of six Russians. It was released this week.

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A Blog on Russia, Central Asia and
the Caucasus

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Turkmenbashi's Hidden Wealth

A website I hadn't previously heard of -- Gundogar -- poses one of the most self-evidently important questions I've heard recently: Whatever happened to Turkmen President Saparmurat Niyazov's fortune?

In her excellent piece, Gulnoza Saidazimova frames the stakes -- billions of dollars -- and the players (mainly German institutions) in the as-yet undisclosed location of Niyazov's presumed wealth.

We all know, just as a teaser, that the main reason the ultra-important trans-Caspian natural gas pipeline wasn't built during the 1990s was that Niyazov demanded that a $500 million bribe be deposited into his German bank account by the Western project developers, but was rebuffed.

What about the bribes that were paid? Given the history of the wealth of the world's fallen dictators, and the European banks that protect them, one is led to believe the money won't get back to Turkmenistan soon.

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posted by Steve at 11:49 PM 2 Comments Links to this post