19.07.2019

Akhal-Teke

As ever in Turkmenistan, there is a yawning chasm between word and fact

At the start of the month, the government was hoping in its typical fashion to generate some sense of buoyancy with a chirpy half-year economic growth figures report. That will have been soured, however, by another slide for the national currency.

Hot off the press – Turkmenistan’s president likes kittens.

Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov is on holiday, but this does not mean state media is letting up in its minute coverage of his activities.

On his first day away from work, he researched the next issue of his multivolume work on the medicinal plants of Turkmenistan. As seen in the July 15 evening news bulletin, he took a quick break to watch a TV recording of himself playing music with his grandson, Kerimguly.

With that done, he went to spend some time with a couple of his granddaughters. As the girls… >> подробнее

17.07.2019

Madeline Roache

Gas-rich Turkmenistan facing worst economic crisis in 30 years, coupled with rights concerns, UK think-tank reports.

Foreign governments and investors must stop courting gas-rich Turkmenistan, «a country teetering on the edge of catastrophe», according to a new report by the London-based Foreign Policy Centre.

Turkmenistan, second to North Korea in the scale of its isolation according to media watchdog Reporters Without Borders, has long attracted investment from foreign governments.

But the report, which was launched in Westminster on Monday, said the country has a «Potemkin economy» as respectable official gross domestic product (GDP) figures mask a chaotic, black financial system.

15.07.2019

Shaun Walker

Citizens of gas-rich, isolated state subject to food shortages and human rights abuses

The Foreign Policy Centre: Turkmenistan was the worst country in the region “in terms of the depth and breadth of repression”, and said foreign investors should think twice before associating themselves with the country.

Investors and governments should stop cosying up to gas-rich Turkmenistan, according to a new report that describes the central Asian hermit state as “a country teetering on the edge of catastrophe”.

Turkmenistan, second only to North Korea in the scale of its isolation and leadership cult, has long been courted by western governments eager to tap into its gas reserves and associated wealth. The country is thought to possess about 10% of the proven global reserves of natural gas, but is currently in the midst of an economic crisis.

“Hunger and hyperinflation are being managed… >> подробнее