Speculation abounds about the state of health of Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov, but media reports that he has died have not been confirmed, the Kremlin said Tuesday.
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Earlier in the day, some media outlets reported that Karimov died, just two days after he had been hospitalized following a stroke.
Karimov, 78, presents himself as a bulwark of stability in a country situated on the northern borders of Afghanistan, controlling vast reserves of gold, oil, gas and cotton, and criss-crossed, like the broader region, by ethnic fault lines.
“I think in the corridors of power, they have already started fighting”, Rabbimov said, while predicting the elite will be keen to ensure the transition is “more or less stable”. Like Karimov, Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev has ruled since 1991; in Tajikistan, Imomali Rakhmon has held power since 1992; Kyrgyzstan has seen much more political change, some peaceful, some violent; and Turkmenistan’s two post-Soviet leaders have maintained freaky and repressive personality cults.
Uzbek authorities have not released further official statements on Karimov’s health since he was rushed into intensive care.
“It is hard to say right now, which of the few scenarios is the most realistic one, but one thing is certain: there is no talk about his daughters, of course, and this won’t be one person”.
Uzbekistan’s opacity makes assessing the potential threat of Islamic extremism hard, Stronski said.
His eldest daughter Gulnara had been seen as a possible successor but is out of favour after accusing her mother and younger sister of sorcery and comparing her father to Stalin on Twitter.
Karimov has a close circle of political allies, Kislov said.
Following his recent health problems, prime-minister Shavkat Mirzioiev and vice-minister Rustam Azimov are the leading candidates in order to replace Mr. Karimov.
Mirziyoyev is thought to be friendly toward Russia, particularly because of family ties to Russian-Uzbek oligarch Alisher Usmanov.
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