Authorities say they wish to resume trade, but continue to prevent trucks carrying essential items from entering the country. This and more in our weekly Turkmenistan column.
The president may be deluded, but even he has come to realize that the crisis already upon his heavily energy exports-dependent economy is going to be very difficult to weather without help.
Some enterprising souls have seized the moment to keep their businesses alive. Their main problem now is government flip-flopping and bureaucratic hurdles.
Armed forces on both sides appear not to have made many concessions to the need to social distance, but diplomats have held their first videoconference as part of the ongoing peace negotiations.
Instead of being transparent about the economic crisis, the president is, in the manner of an unaccountable manager incapable of long-term planning, trying to do the same with less.
The government is betraying signs of not knowing quite how to run a state of emergency – especially one instated to defend a population against an invisible virus.