Author: Aziza Rahimova

A company owned by Nur Muhammed Palvan, son of an alleged Central Asian smuggling tycoon, paid $3 million for a north London church now operating as the UK’s first Uyghur mosque — raising questions about the origin of the funds.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced on 16 October the creation of an Investors’ Council for the fuel and energy sector, placing his daughter and Head of the Presidential Administration, Saida Mirziyoyeva, at its helm. The president cited bureaucracy and corruption as the explicit reasons for the new body.

President Shavkat Mirziyoyev announced on October 16 that Saida Mirziyoyeva will chair a newly created energy sector investors council, established in direct response to complaints from major international energy companies about land allocation delays, grid connection bottlenecks and slow issuance of technical specifications.

A visually impaired resident of Karakul district identified and refused a 10 million soum cash demand linked to a land subsidy application after listening to an audio guide on anti-corruption law — the first practical test of a legal literacy project that has since reached more than 40,000 people across Uzbekistan.

President Mirziyoyev has ordered a new Investors’ Council for the fuel and energy sector, chaired by Presidential Administration head Saida Mirziyoyeva, after companies including Acwa Power, EDF and Voltalia called for a standing mechanism to resolve land, grid and permitting delays.

President Mirziyoyev has created an Investors’ Council for the fuel and energy sector, chaired by Presidential Administration head Saida Mirziyoyeva, citing bureaucracy and corruption as the forces compelling the decision.

The EU’s 21st Russia sanctions package targets two Kazakhstani firms, three Kyrgyz companies, a Kyrgyz bank connected to Russia’s SWIFT alternative, and 14 cryptocurrency platforms, as Brussels escalates pressure on Central Asian trade and financial channels.

Kazakhstan’s Supreme Audit Chamber has presented parliament with findings of financial losses, expired drugs dispensed to patients, and price markups of up to 600 percent in the public drug procurement system — triggering an unprecedented legal threat from the Health Ministry and calls for sweeping reform.

From the paralysis of dual power after Nazarbayev’s 2019 resignation to the post-January 2022 prosecutions of security chiefs, oligarchs and former ministers, Kazakhstan’s anti-corruption drive has returned more than $1.5 billion in assets from a single convict alone — while leaving other members of the old guard untouched.

A Tashkent shell company capitalised at under $10,000 collected more than $100 million in Uzbek state gas contracts before disappearing. Ozodlik’s investigation traces its corporate network to President Mirziyoyev’s son-in-law Otabek Umarov through a web of UAE entities, a British citizenship-by-investment broker and the chairman of the national judo federation.

A Ministry of Investments official and five others have been detained across Samarkand, Jizzakh and Syrdarya regions after allegedly charging citizens up to $41,600 for fake US visa and migration services, the State Security Service announced.

Washington’s 12 April sanctions package targeting Alisher Usmanov’s business empire and Russia-linked evasion networks has designated Uzbek cement producer Akhangarancement, a telecoms joint venture part-owned by Uzbek authorities, and two small Uzbek firms accused of procuring US goods for Russia’s military.