• Steve LeVine covers foreign affairs for Business Week. 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. The updated paperback was released in April 2009.



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    A Blog on Russia, Energy, the Caspian and
    Beyond

    Saturday, July 25, 2009

    The Malady Called Turkmenbashi

    Earlier this week, we reported on the impressive surgical abilities of Turkmenistan's president. Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov not only rode his dentistry skill to the country's top office three years ago; he also can remove a tumor.

    The feat attracted much attention not just at the novelty of a head of state taking time off to perform surgery, but because of whom the president succeeded in 2006. The country's former leader was Saparmurat Niyazov, the self-styled Turkmenbashi, or Leader of the Turkmen. Here was a man with a serious fixation on monuments.

    We all had good fun at Turkmenbashi's expense before and after his death in 2006. I did so in this promo for Oil and the Glory last year.



    But is this all Turkmenistan is bound for? Being a source of humor to the region and beyond? After awhile, my Turkmen friends certainly didn't think all the fussing was funny, and initially Berdymukhamedov attracted good reports for tearing down some of Niyazov's monuments, and reopening schools and libraries.

    But it turns out that the surgery incident was indicative of a problem. Berdymukhamedov seems to have contracted the same malady that afflicted Niyazov.

    On Tuesday, we heard that Berdymukhamedov launched a book on Turkmen plants with medicinal uses. Now we are told that he's also an expert on the famed Turkmen horse breed, the Akhal Tekke. His book on the subject is called Akhal Tekke: Our Pride and Glory, according to Daniel Kalder at the Telegraph in London.

    The day before yesterday, the president's press service reported that Berdymukhamedov is also a pretty good pilot. He took over the controls of a Sikorsky helicopter in order to get "acquainted with the pace of a season cotton treatment campaign, preparation of land for tillage and harvesting of crops." The Turkmen leader then inspected a construction site from the air before being congratulated on his performance by the head of the country's state airline.

    This is a man of the people. Berdymukhamedov's caring reaches even the ordinary tree. As the news service noted, after his official inspection, Berdymukhamedov "issued instructions to government officials to 'carefully examine the state of urban plants and establish proper gardening by providing timely watering of plants.'"

    Berdymukhamedov is continuing with at least one of his predecessor's grandiose projects -- "Golden Age Lake," in which he is filling up a 77-square mile desert depression called Karashor with cotton-field run-off.

    Quite apart from focusing on such $20 billion ventures while his country is mired in poverty, some people think the project could actually provoke war with neighboring Uzbekistan, which like much of the region has a chronic water shortage.

    At the project launch a week ago, Berdymukhamedov turned a shovel-full of earth, then got on a horse and rode away to a waiting helicopter.

    There was no word on who piloted it.

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    Wednesday, June 25, 2008

    The King is Dead. Long Live the King.

    So much for friendly-old Berdy.

    Radio Liberty has sent around a statement that one of its contributors in Turkmenistan was beaten and tortured in recent days for refusing to stop reporting for the American-funded broadcaster. Sazak Durdymuradov, whom Radio Liberty says is a history teacher who files reports on educational and constitutional reform, was seized from his home three days ago. According to the report, his beating and torture occurred at the same time that senior Turkmen officials were talking with European Union officials about human rights in the capital of Ashkabad.

    Western governments have largely withheld judgement on Turkmenistan's new president, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, hoping that he is different from his megalomaniacal predecessor, Saparmurat Niyazov. Berdymukhamedov has raised hopes by taking down ego-driven statues memorializing Niyazov, and reviving the right of young Turkmen to a full education, among other things.

    But the human rights situation doesn't appear to have changed much.

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    Sunday, January 20, 2008

    Turkmenistan Starts to De-Bizarre: Libraries Legalized

    It's true that outsiders (including myself) have spent a good 15 years making Turkmenistan the butt of our Central Asian humor. But in our defense, everyone from ordinary Turkmen to Central Asia's presidential circles felt the same way. When you'd simply mention the name "Turkmenbashi," local people couldn't contain themselves.

    That of course was what Saparmurat Niyazov insisted that people call him -- Turkmenbashi, or Father of all Turkmen.

    Well, all good fun must come to an end. Niyazov died a year ago, and today his successor, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov (a dentist by profession who my friends at Registan.net insist on calling "Stomatalogbashi, or Father of all Dentists) began to discard some of the country's weirdest laws.

    Berdymukhamedov announced in a nationally broadcast news conference that Turkmenistan needs a few libraries. Some working cinemas. An opera. A ballet. A circus.

    What's next -- will he trash the Ruhnama, the delusional Niyazov tract that's required reading of all Turkmen?

    I for one hope that Berdymukhamedov does not melt all the Niyazov statues for scrap. Humor, after all, is the root of sanity.

    Photo: Jensimon7
    Rights: Creative Commons

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    Thursday, November 22, 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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