Qishloq Ovozi (Archive)

After 12 years as one of the most trusted aides of Turkmenistan's mercurial president, speculation is rife as to why Aleksandr Dadaev suddenly left his influential post in Ashgabat.

Dadaev, who headed the powerful Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan, was an obvious favorite and trusted financial associate of Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov, to the point of being referred to as the Turkmen president's "wallet."

Although Dadaev's union is not involved in Turkmenistan's sales of natural gas and oil, it is connected to more than half of the other products exported from Turkmenistan.

A sudden retirement in Turkmenistan by a top official often precedes news that the official has been arrested and charged with serious crimes.

And Dadaev, 72, announced his retirement on April 1, just two weeks after being reelected to another four-year term as head of the union.

Berdymukhammedov became Turkmenistan's leader at the end of 2006 after the death of the first Turkmen president, Saparmurat Niyazov. In March 2008, Berdymukhammedov created the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs and named Dadaev to head it.

It was a curious choice.

Niyazov had fired Dadaev as deputy mayor of Ashgabat in 2002 amid allegations of corruption.

The Path To Riches

Dadaev's fortunes took a sudden turn for the better after Niyazov's death, however.

According to a 2018 report from Hronika Turkmenistana, a website operated by Turkmen activists in exile, Dadaev received an enormous loan from the Central Bank in 2007, more than $10 million, at an amazing rate of 5 percent interest with a two-year grace period to expand his Gush Toplumy poultry farm.

Shortly after that, the Land Resource Service of the Agriculture Ministry allocated a 30-hectare plot for the poultry farm and 1,500 hectares of irrigated land in Akhal Province -- and 500 more hectares of land in Dashoguz Province -- to raise crops to feed the poultry.

The Energy and Industry Ministry then constructed an electricity and heating system for the poultry complex.

Since then, Gush Toplumy has provided poultry to most of the stores in Turkmenistan's cities, making Dadaev a very wealthy man.

Dadaev's fortunes rose yet again when he was made head of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs of Turkmenistan in 2008.

In October 2010, the union established the Rysgal commercial bank, nominally a private bank. Most of the country's businesses reportedly have to obtain loans and credits from the Rysgal bank.

The union also has a newspaper called Rysgal and even its own political party, the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs.

Formed in 2012, the Party of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs was Turkmenistan's second registered political party, after the Democratic Party of Turkmenistan, which was previously the Communist Party of the Soviet Socialist Republic of Turkmenia during the Soviet era.

According to RFE/RL's Turkmen Service, Turkmenistan's Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs now has some 24,180 members and is the main contractor for the state.

As an example, in February of this year, Berdymukhammedov allocated some $1.5 billion for the union to build a new capital city for Akhal Province.

Berdymukhammedov's son, Serdar, is the governor of Akhal Province.

Another exquisite example is the some $2.3 billion that was allocated for the union to construct a 600-kilometer, multilane highway between Ashgabat and the eastern city of Turkmenabat (formerly Charjou). Work on the highway was officially launched in January 2019 with the first aim of linking eastern Turkmenistan to the Caspian port city of Turkmenbashi in the west.

Dadaev's union also handles the construction of high-rise apartment buildings, animal markets, parking lots, suburban cottages, and even a fish farm in Balkan Province.

Turning to sports, the union played a large role in raising funds for the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games that Turkmenistan hosted in September 2017 when the government found itself strapped for cash as the price for Turkmenistan's main export, natural gas, plunged and the country lost two of its three gas customers (first Russia, then Iran).

As the union's chief, Dadaev often traveled to Russia, Azerbaijan, Kyrgyzstan, and other countries to try to broker deals on behalf of the union.

Sharing The Wealth

Dadaev's family also grew wealthy, of course, and his son, Vitaly, and brother, Aleksei, also head several large businesses in Turkmenistan.

And when it came time on March 17, 2020 -- the 12-year anniversary of the founding of the union -- to vote on a chairman for the union for 2020-2024, more than 600 business representatives met and reelected Dadaev.

Which is why it was so strange when the Board of the Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs met for a session on April 1 and announced they had accepted Dadaev's request to retire.

If Dadaev was planning on retiring, why did he not make that clear before the March 17 conference and allow representatives to elect someone new?

Dadaev's sudden retirement sparked rumors that Dadaev would soon be facing criminal charges and would have his immense wealth stripped away.

Such suspicions are fueled by the fate of Isgender Mulikov, who served as interior minister from 2009 until he was publicly humiliated and fired by Berdymukhammedov in October 2019.

He thereafter appeared on state television in December in handcuffs, confessing to have taken huge bribes and embezzled state money.

It was a familiar scenario that has played out on state television several times in recent years as the country's economy continued to worsen amid skyrocketing unemployment, shortages of basic goods, and rampant inflation.

Disgraced former top officials, who had served in high state posts for many years, have been paraded in front of state television cameras as Berdymukhammedov berated them and they meekly confessed to abusing their positions and illegally accumulating wealth and property.

Central Asian leaders vowed at a historic meeting two years ago in the Kazakh capital, then called Astana, to boost their level of cooperation.

It was the first summit of the region's presidents in nearly 20 years, and the leaders made the same pledge again in Tashkent in November 2019, though little collaboration among the Central Asian countries has been visible since.

And then last month came the coronavirus pandemic -- an unprecedented problem that affects the Central Asian countries in multiple ways.

To be honest, the region's five countries have no more of a common policy or response to the COVID-19 crisis than any other region on the planet.

And it is ultimately up to each individual country to assess their capabilities and level of problems to decide which measures should be taken to combat the spread of the coronavirus.

Since the first coronavirus cases were reported in Kazakhstan on March 12, Central Asia has a new way of dividing itself: those who are recording infections from the virus and taking measures to stop its spread -- Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan -- and those who officially say they have no registered cases -- Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, and are doing little to nothing.

And despite the pledges at the summits in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, there has not been much cooperation among the leaders, though that is slowly changing, as was seen at the end of March when Uzbekistan gave masks, protective clothing, and virus test kits to Kyrgyzstan.

Mirziyoev Takes The Lead

If there is one person responsible for actively trying to coordinate efforts within Central Asia, it is Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev.

Uzbekistan registered its first case of coronavirus infection on March 14, two days after Kazakhstan.

On March 18, Mirziyoev spoke by phone with Kazakh President Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev about measures the two countries were taking to contain the spread of the virus. And on March 20, Mirziyoev called Kazakhstan's first president, Nursultan Nazarbaev, which reportedly also featured discussion about battling the coronavirus.

Kazakhstan has registered the most infections thus far, with some 380 as of April 1, with three people succumbing to COVID-19. Uzbekistan -- Central Asia's most populous country with some 32 million people, follows with 173 coronavirus cases and two deaths. Kyrgyzstan has registered 111 infections and no deaths as of April 1.

Mirziyoev has also spoken recently with Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov at least twice -- once on March 18 and again on March 27 -- according to the Uzbek president's Twitter account, which said the two presidents talked about "effective interaction to combat pandemic" and "priority measures taken to prevent the spread of the coronavirus infection."

Berdymukhammedov apparently can use the word "coronavirus" in discussions with other leaders, just not in front of the people of Turkmenistan.

And on March 27, Mirziyoev had a phone call with Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov about the "epidemiological situation."

The day before that, Mirziyoev has a phone conversation with Afghan President Ashraf Ghani that included an exchange of "views on combating the current pandemic."

Since Uzbekistan borders the other Central Asian countries and Afghanistan, it could simply have made good sense to be in contact with all the neighbors during this crisis. But one must give Mirziyoev some credit, as he has already done far more to coordinate with regional countries than one could imagine his predecessor, Islam Karimov, having ever done.

There is, of course, one neighbor with whom Mirziyoev seems to have not spoken, but we'll get to that later.

First, it must be noted that Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan are cooperating better on their long-running border problem that has left cargo trucks backed up for several kilometers on the Kyrgyz side of the border.

Kyrgyzstan's ability to export and import through Kazakhstan has never been more important than now.

Kazakh Prime Minister Askar Mamin and Kyrgyz counterpart Muhammedkaly Abylgaziev spoke by phone on March 15, agreeing to ease congestion for large trucks crossing their borders and to work together to prevent the spread of the coronavirus.

At that time Kyrgyzstan still had not registered any COVID-19 cases.

But when they did on March 18, Jeenbekov and Toqaev spoke the following day by phone to discuss "joint steps in combating the coronavirus."

And the Kyrgyz and Kazakh prime ministers spoke again on March 25 to review their cooperation in stemming the virus's spread.

Rahmon Left Out

The one leader in Central Asia with whom Mirziyoev has not spoken since the outbreak of coronavirus in the region is Tajik President Emomali Rahmon.

In fact, there is no record of any Central Asian leader speaking with Rahmon until March 28, when Kyrgyzstan's Jeenbekov called him.

According to the Tajik state news agency Khovar, the two presidents discussed "containing the further cross-border spread of the infectious illness [coronavirus] and the importance of even greater coordination of joint efforts at the regional level" to lessen the impact and consequences of the pandemic.

The part about the cross-border spread of the infectious illness is interesting since as of the last day of March, Tajikistan had not reported any cases of the coronavirus.

Turkmenistan also had not, and both countries continue to allow mass gatherings and social meetings.

Celebrations of Norouz, for example, went ahead as planned and mosques are still operating in both countries.

Nothing To See Here

That is in stark contrast to the situations in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Kazakhstan, where lockdowns are in effect and people are, in most instances, confined to their homes.

The authorities in Turkmenistan have been taking measures that included the rerouting of international flights to a secondary airport near the eastern city of Turkmenabat and establishing quarantine camps, as well as severely restricting internal movement in the country.

Despite such measures, the government is extremely reluctant to utter the word "coronavirus" in public, and RFE/RL's Turkmen Service correspondents have reported people being detained in the capital, Ashgabat, for discussing the pandemic.

Tajikistan has not yet taken such precautions and, in fact, officials have done very little to alter the regular activities of Tajiks, and they continue to travel freely between regions and shop in stores and bazaars as usual.

Such a lack of action seems to be a perfect recipe for spreading the coronavirus and that probably makes Tajikistan's neighbors nervous.

That may explain why only Jeenbekov has spoken with Rahmon thus far, and that was only recently.

Such contact was likely prompted by the thought of the very active border in the Ferghana Valley that Kyrgyzstan shares with Tajikistan, the most densely populated area in Central Asia and one fertile for transferring not only produce and other goods, but also the coronavirus.

Uzbekistan also shares a border with Tajikistan in the Ferghana Valley and the Uzbek president's failure thus far to contact Rahmon might be evidence of Tashkent’s displeasure with his seemingly cavalier attitude toward imposing measures to control the possible spread in Tajikistan.