Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said they have no new information regarding Karimov and that reports of his death remain unconfirmed, Sputnik news agency reported.
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Uzbekistan’s mass media reports said earlier that Karimov, 78, had been hospitalized, giving no details about the diagnosis.
President Islam Karimov’s daughter Lola Karimova posted a message Monday on Instagram, saying her father suffered a brain hemorrhage Saturday and is now in stable condition in intensive care.
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Karimov lacks a clear successor after being re-elected to a fifth term in 2015 with more than 90 percent of the vote.
The favorite is Shavkat Mirziyoyev, the country’s prime minister, Kislov said in an interview, noting his friendly relations with Karimov’s wife, Tatyana Karimova, and with National Security Council chief Rustam Inoyatov, a likely kingmaker in any succession struggle.
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.
Ms Karimova-Tillyaeva pleaded for people to “refrain from speculations”.
Karimov’s government has frequently been accused of human rights abuses, including forced child labor, the killing of unarmed protesters in a 2005 massacre in the city of Andijan and even boiling protesters alive.
Karimov’s second daughter, Lola, is Uzbekistan’s ambassador to Paris-based UNESCO. He studied engineering and rose up the Communist Party ladder to become head of Soviet Uzbekistan in 1989.
Amnesty International said in April that there was “overwhelming evidence that torture continues unabated in Uzbekistan”. Uzbekistan has fiercely denied all the allegations against it.
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Although his country is resource-rich and produces and exports oil, gas, gold and cotton, he has courted attention from both Russian Federation and the United States, who see his regional influence as important.
