FOR 23 years Rustam Inoyatov (pictured) was perhaps the most feared person in Uzbekistan. Officially he was the security chief; unofficially, the puppet-master of the dictatorial regime. That changed on January 31st, when Shavkat Mirziyoyev, Uzbekistan’s reforming president, pushed the puppeteer aside in a bloodless coup.
Mr Mirziyoyev dismissed Mr Inoyatov—a jowly, publicity-shy septuagenarian—as director of the National Security Service, the successor agency to the KGB and just as ruthless as its Soviet predecessor. He sweetened the pill by naming Mr Inoyatov a presidential adviser and a senator in the rubber-stamp parliament. Nonetheless, the message was clear: Mr Mirziyoyev now runs the show in Central Asia’s most populous state.
Under Islam Karimov, Mr Mirziyoyev’s predecessor, who died in 2016 after ruling with an iron fist for a quarter of a century, Mr Inoyatov acquired powers far beyond his brief. His day job involved crushing all forms of dissent among the cowed population of 32m, but in practice nothing happened in...Continue reading
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