OCT. 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s clans have pulled together behind Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the acting president and PM, in a power-sharing deal designed to ensure stability after the death of Islam Karimov last month, diplomatic sources told Reuters news agency.
Analysts, including The Conway Bulletin, have said that the smooth promotion of Mr Mirziyoyev and his seemingly inevitable victory in a presidential election in December, suggested that a deal had been done between Uzbekistan’s key power-brokers, but this is the first time that diplomatic sources have gone on record to confirm this.
The unnamed sources said that both Security Service chief Rustam Inoyatov and finance minister Rustam Azimov supported Mr Mirziyoyev as the Uzbek elites’ front-man but that he would consult with them on major decisions.
“Rival clans had agreed that Mirziyoyev would be the public face of the Uzbek leadership with the title of president, but that he would in reality not be able to make independent decisions,” Reuters quoted the sources as saying.
This is not without precedent in Central Asia, where succession issues have dominated politics. In 2006, when Turkmen president Saparmurat Niyazov died, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, an obscure former dentist, was picked to become president as a compromise by the various power groups. He, though, has since developed a personality cult and rules the country virtually single-handedly.
In Uzbekistan, Karimov had ruled for 25 years, ever since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, although it was clear that in the last couple of years he and his family had ceded control to other people.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 300, published on Oct. 14 2016)
