After the majority Muslim republic gained independence in 1991, Karimov launched simultaneous battles against Western culture and Islamic fundamentalism, which was viewed as a major threat.
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Uzbekistan’s cabinet of ministers said Sunday that the leader had been “hospitalised” in a statement published by the state news agency that gave no details.
The veteran leader, 78, now fighting for his life in intensive care according to his family, has played Russia, China and the West off against one other to avoid total isolation after steering his strategic state out of the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Police and soldiers are reportedly guarding the government hospital where he is being treated in what the Associated Press calls “an apparent reflection of unease over potential instability”. Ms. Karimova-Tillyaeva said that her father was in stable condition and that it was too early for a prognosis.
Is Islam Karimov, the ruthless dictator who has ruled Uzbekistan for 25 years, dead or alive?
A successor is likely to be chosen by political insiders.
For years, people expected that it would be his older daughter, Gulnara Karimova, 44, a high-profile businesswoman, diplomat, pop singer and fashion designer whose fall from grace after being accused of graft in 2013 reached Shakespearean proportions.
Following his recent health problems, prime-minister Shavkat Mirzioiev and vice-minister Rustam Azimov are the leading candidates in order to replace Mr. Karimov. She is now under house arrest.
At the time of the collapse of the Soviet Unio, n he had been nearly two years at the first secretary of the Communist Party of Uzbekistan, and moved smoothly into the role of the independent republic’s first president.
Gulnara Karimova at the Fashion Week in Moscow, Russia in 2011. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said they have no new information regarding Karimov, Sputnik news agency reported. A year later, he became President of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic.
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Karimov has ruled the country ever since, staging four presidential elections that foreign observers heavily criticized as undemocratic. It is, analysts noted, his way of showing the public that he is in good health.
