Eurasianet

The president gets another title, ignores soaring food prices, starts a charity, and pens a ditty to his favorite city. This and more in our weekly Turkmenistan briefing.

Authorities fail to issue alert ahead of another natural disaster while cracking down on censorship-busting VPN apps. This and more in our weekly bulletin.

The president makes an unprecedented admission: Turkmenistan is deep in the red.

Banned news channels, banned cartoons, and a food crisis on the horizon. Our weekly Turkmenistan briefing.

Turkmen authorities go to great lengths to persecute wayward citizens abroad.

The president's sudden buck-passing to specialists is a little anxiety-inducing, since it may indicate something is wrong.

The dauphin of Turkmenistan has valuable new purse-monitoring duties.

The president seems troubled by the well-documented shortage of hard currency. This and more in our weekly briefing.

Cover-ups are the norm. Result: more corruption, higher costs of living and a still-uncontrolled pandemic.

The way the state uses its heavy hand to condition the fate of the economy does not inspire hope for promised market reform.

Spraying chlorine, new infrastructure on the Afghan border, and claims of a naturally occurring COVID vaccine. This and more in our weekly Turkmenistan bulletin.

Ashgabat may hope expending energy to attain international respectability will improve its chances of tapping global financial institutions for investment.

What ordinary Turkmens have long understood is that in times of trouble, they are by and large on their own.

As the president celebrates, the economic crisis deepened by a coronavirus outbreak he has refused to acknowledge has left his people in a state of Dickensian misery.

Electricity exports; crowd control outside food shops; and despite denials, COVID strikes. This and more in our weekly Turkmenistan briefing.

An unacknowledged second wave, secret police at funerals, and congratulations from the Taliban. This and more in our weekly Turkmenistan briefing.

Digital import substitution, currency restrictions, and a cemetery looted for scrap: This and more in our weekly Turkmenistan briefing.

Only the best medicine for the leader. For everyone else, bread shortages.

Travel bans, dams and Russian fans. This and more in our weekly Turkmenistan briefing.

Ecological conservation is a matter of pride in Turkmenistan. But a disconnect between rhetoric and reality is a hallmark of the Berdymukhamedov era.

In state media, Turkmenistan is a roaring success story. The data paint a more worrisome picture.

This week in our Turkmenistan bulletin: Ashgabat and Moscow suddenly ratify an aged security agreement. Plus budgets, boasts and bribes.

The dictatorial regime is mostly deaf to people’s complaints, but it sometimes caves.

The president’s fury has only served to expose once more the implausibility of official data.

After rewarding himself with a more pliant constitution, the president held a massive military parade. This and more in our weekly Turkmenistan briefing.