Ukraine crisis brings questions over human rights in countries such as Azerbaijan, Algeria and Qatar to the fore George Osborne and Boris Johnson were lined up to speak, the London Stock Exchange (LSE) was to provide the venue and the Royal Philarmonic Orchestra the evening entertainment. A plush red carpet was rolled out by the British establishment last month but not for senior politicians or business...
Berdymukhamedov's moves towards a multi-party system and a market economy will not affect his rule of the repressive state Turkmenistan plans to launch two new political parties that would formally break the ruling party's monopoly while posing no challenge to President Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov's absolute rule of the reclusive, gas-producing Central Asian state. State television on Tuesday showed...
'The Patron' Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov wins horserace on national holiday to add to long list of accomplishments Turkmenistan's president, Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has taken his cult of personality to new heights with headlines in the state-run media trumpeting his victory in a £7m horse race. A professional dentist also known for his passion for glitzy racing cars, the president has run...
After three years of promise, the president seems to be turning back the clock On a bright autumn day in September last year, several men barricaded themselves inside a discarded bottling plant on the sleepy outskirts of Ashgabat, the capital of Turkmenistan. ...
Can a deal struck with the EU help the plight of Turkmen or are we only interested in their country's gas? After almost 20 years of relative isolation from the west, Turkmenistan a country with one of the world's worst human rights records is eyeing European markets for business. And Europe is eager to buy, and quick to overlook democratic principles in exchange for gas. Turkmenistan's commitment to...
The people of Turkmenistan, where all the media is state-controlled, could soon be able to read independent newspapers. Its ruler, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov , said during a television broadcast that "proposals for the founding of private newspapers and magazines can be prepared and work on this matter can be accelerated." ...
Embassy cables reveal how US relentlessly cajoles and bullies governments not to give succour to Tehran Sitting in the Rome office of Franco Frattini, the Italian foreign minister, in February this year, Robert Gates, the veteran US defence secretary and former CIA chief, issued a chilling warning of war in our time. "Without progress in the next few months, we risk nuclear proliferation in the...
s a rather flippant introduction to a weighty subject. Vladimir Putin's dream of a Eurasian Union, a vast trade and political bloc stretching from China to the edge of the EU, began taking shape in 2010 with the ECU, a free-trade customs union binding Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus. A carelessly worded ECU regulation on the absorbency of non-natural materials has sparked colourful protests from wearers...
s from naivety, greed or grandiosity, some celebrities are remarkably nonchalant about being friendly with tyrants The strange surge of celebrity-dictator friendships isn't going unremarked. From athletes to pop artists, American icons are playing nice with controversial world leaders. Celebrities, such as Dennis Rodman, who claim they intend to mend ties between troubled countries and the US may have...
t just David Cameron who has been criticised this week for cosying up to a repressive dictator in a former Soviet state – Jennifer Lopez performed at an event in Turkmenistan on Saturday night. In a statement to Associated Press, Lopez's publicist said: "Had there been knowledge of human rights issues any kind, Jennifer would not have attended." Here we present a handy guide to the "-stans" so no pop...
s publicist says she would not have sung for leader if she had known about country's human rights record The US pop star Jennifer Lopezhas added to her long history of performing for unsavoury characters with a birthday concert for the president of Turkmenistan – a man accused of committing widespread human rights abuses while ruling over the hermit nation. Human rights activists criticised the star,...
s wrist and pulled him toward an aged Toyota. Tripping over feet, I was pushed in another direction. Our luggage was lifted away and neatly deposited into another car. Eventually, a Turkmen we'd met in Farab identified himself and invited us to join him for the long and quiet journey southward. Mary, set in a desert oasis, contained everything a good Turkmen town should: a gold statue of Turkmenbashi...
s natural gas wealth. Guinness World Records editor-in-chief Craig Glenday on Saturday awarded Ashgabat the record for the highest density of white marble-clad buildings, saying it "shows that the architectural restyling effort led by the Turkmen government has come to a high spectacular level". Turkmenistan has developed a fixation on record-breaking. Last year, it was recognised as having the world...
s president, Gurbanguli Berdymukhamedov, has won a new five-year term by capturing 97% of the vote, election officials said. A western expert called the vote a democratic sham. All of Berdymukhamedov's seven opponents praised his leadership in their campaigns, making the authoritarian leader's victory in Sunday...
s performance. They were joined by Estonia and the Netherlands. RWB comments that these countries "respect basic freedoms" and serve "as a reminder that media independence can only be maintained in strong democracies and that democracy needs media freedom." Attempts to secure democracy in the Arab world have had contrasting political outcomes. So Tunisia (134th) rose 30 places while Bahrain (173rd)...
s life would do well to avoid Turkmenistan, where new rules impose a strict order of ceremonies on residents of the authoritarian central Asian nation. In the latest example of what might generously be called his eccentric approach to power, President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has ordered couples to plant trees and visit the city's main monuments on their big day. While most couples might hope to...
s two decades since the USSR broke up. But what happened to those Soviet countries? Here's the key data They were three days that shook the world - and shook the Soviet Union so hard that it fell apart. But for better or worse? Twenty years on from the Soviet coup that ultimately ended Mikhail Gorbachev's political career and gave birth to 15 new states, The Guardian was keen to explore just how well...
s will be one of them. She and her husband, Andrei Sakharov, symbolised – within the Soviet Union and throughout the west – the strength and courage of those opposed to state socialism. Bonner, who has died aged 88, was often portrayed merely as the wife of the Soviet Union's most famous dissident scientist, but her history as an activist was as lengthy as her husband's. Her determination, organisational...
S RULING FAMILY REF: ASHGABAT 1503 Classified By: Charge d'Affaires Sylvia Reed Curran. Reasons 1.4 (B) a nd (D). 1. (C) SUMMARY: Turkmen President Berdimuhammedov is vain, fastidious, vindictive, a micro-manager, and a bit of an Ahal Teke "nationalist." He also is the only son in a family of eight children. His father is a retired prison guard with the rank of colonel. The father, many in Turkmenistan...
s houses and vehicles in Ashgabat were also seized. 2. (C) Always also mentioned in the same breath as Tagiyev's arrest is a rumored internal investigation of Berdimuhamedov's son-in-law, Dovlet Atabayev, who heads the London office of the State Agency for Management and Use of Hydrocarbon Resources. Supposedly, the young man is in trouble for having acquired some nice real estate in the London area....