The First 100 Days of the President

With the backing of foreign private military formations, Shavkat Mirziyoyev managed to arrest and imprison all the heads of the security services who were aware of his numerous crimes and held compromising information against him.

Having removed all obstacles in his path, Mirziyoyev began reinstating government officials who had previously been ousted or convicted by the former administration for various economic crimes. He immediately placed his daughters, sons-in-law, and other relatives in high-ranking government positions. They now control all sectors of the economy, and the scale of their corruption has far surpassed that of Islam Karimov’s daughters.

Like in the Soviet era, Mirziyoyev relies on criminal organizations to maintain control over society. Notorious figures from the criminal underworld have now been integrated into the government. Today, Uzbekistan has transformed into a criminal mafia-oligarchic state under Kremlin control.

The country has essentially been divided among criminal clans overseen by the president’s sons-inlaw, Otabek Umarov and Oybek Tursunov. Notably, Oybek Tursunov has close business ties with the notorious figure from the North Caucasus, Ramzan Kadyrov. Despite their familial ties, there is intense rivalry between the two sons-in-law, occasionally leading to open armed conflicts. The reason for their conflict is simple: a struggle for power. Each of Mirziyoyev’s sons-in-law, representing powerful clans in the country, sees himself as the future president of Uzbekistan.

Amidst the family conflicts within the Mirziyoyev clan, his officials, emboldened by their impunity and unchecked power, have long stopped considering the people as anything more than their subjects.

Zoir Mirzayev, the president’s ally in agricultural affairs, noticed during an inspection of farmland that the wheat fields had not been irrigated. To punish the farmers and local administration, he forced six “guilty” individuals to stand in cold wastewater for 40 minutes. He then made them run ahead of his motorcade in their wet clothes. The next day, this same ally forced farmers to hold heavy boulders for 35 minutes, allegedly for not properly preparing the soil for planting.

Such acts of cruelty are widespread within Uzbekistan’s power structure, rooted in Soviet-communist management practices.

Mirziyoyev’s Domestic Policy

In line with preliminary agreements made with the Kremlin in exchange for the presidential seat, Mirziyoyev has handed over all high-yield and strategic assets of Uzbekistan to Russian oligarchs considered “friends of Putin.”

As a result, the state budget has been deprived of substantial financial revenues. With no alternative sources to boost the country’s economy, Mirziyoyev declared that “every family in the country must keep 100 chickens.” In this peculiar way, the president intended to improve the people’s welfare.

When the chicken scheme failed to produce the expected results, Mirziyoyev offered alternative enrichment strategies to the public: first, breeding goats, then growing lemons, and finally, cultivating red peppers. Large sums were allocated from the state budget to fund these programs, but instead of improving the welfare of the people, these initiatives only benefited Mirziyoyev’s inner circle.

Mirziyoyev recently legalized the industrial trade of cannabis. By officially paying the state $76,300, an individual can obtain a license to cultivate hemp. For activities such as import/export, processing, storage, sale, acquisition, and transportation, an additional fee of $5,100 is charged for each specific category.

For the past five years, all regions of Uzbekistan have experienced a construction boom, the purpose of which often seems to be to seize land or property from owners at minimal cost, particularly when these assets are located in strategically advantageous areas. Frequently, in desperation and as a protest against government abuse, people have resorted to public self-immolation.

Due to poorly planned urban development and the widespread felling of healthy, long-standing trees, the once-flourishing Uzbekistan is now experiencing rapid desertification of its lands.

In modern Uzbekistan, elements of the Soviet legacy persist, such as the forced use of child labor in cotton fields and the annual “hashar” (community service days). Twice a year, for two working days, citizens are compelled to provide free labor for the state’s interests. Workers’ wages for these two days are deducted and pooled into a special fund, but there is no transparency or public oversight regarding the use of these funds.

In recent years, the country has seen an increase in natural and man-made disasters. On May 1, 2020, the dam at the Sardoba Reservoir, which had only been operational since May 2017, burst. The disaster affected not only communities in Uzbekistan but also those in southern Kazakhstan. Unlike their Uzbek counterparts, the Kazakh authorities immediately declared a state of emergency and were able to fully protect their population.

To avoid drawing international attention to the incident, Mirziyoyev used private funds to fully compensate the affected people in the neighboring republic. However, many Uzbek citizens have yet to receive compensation from their own government for the damages they suffered.

Mirziyoyev assigned the investigation of the “construction of the century” disaster to the investigative department of the State Security Service of Uzbekistan, specifically to its First Deputy, Batir Tursunov, who is related to the president by marriage.

To cover up the true culprits of the disaster, the investigation proposed a theory that the dam breach at the Sardoba Reservoir was caused by predatory fish and rodents. However, patriotic members of Uzbekistan’s security services leaked this absurd explanation online. After the case gained public attention, the security services held some random people accountable, while the real perpetrators of the Sardoba breach remain free.

During such crises, Shavkat Mirziyoyev seems to lose his rationality and, in an effort to emerge from these situations, turns to the graves of deceased individuals for help. In a video, Mirziyoyev can be seen telling local officials that he would visit the tomb of Naqshbandi (The Memorial Complex of Khoja Bakhouddin Naqshbandi) to ask for assistance for the people of two districts. While such practices are categorically forbidden in Islam, this does not seem to concern the president, who openly discusses it in front of Muslims.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Uzbek authorities have spent over $8 billion to date. Following China’s example, Mirziyoyev began constructing quarantine zones from shipping containers through his commercial entities, where all citizens returning from abroad were sent. Most of the allocated international funds were funneled into overseas accounts belonging to the president’s inner circle, while ordinary people continue to deal with the challenges of the pandemic on their own, often at their own expense.