Turkmenistan president dies - media reports

Telegram channels and later several media on 21 July reported about the death of Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov. Russian media outlet Govorit Moskva quotes the political commentator and director of the Eurasian Affairs Monitoring Center Aslan Rubayev who refers to his sources in Ashkhabad.

According to Rubayev, representatives of Turkmenistan’s business circles received information from secret services that the president had allegedly died of renal insufficiency.

According to various sources, Berdimuhamedov could be on holidays either from 15 or 18 July. His presidential jet was spotted recently in Germany but yesterday disappeared from the global plane tracking online platform Flight Radar.

The Telegram channel El Murid, specializing on the developments in Arab countries, also reported about the death of Berdimuhamedov, quoting the anonymous sources within the Turkmenistan opposition. One day earlier, the opposition YouTube channel Free Turkmenistan also reported that Berdimuhamedov died on 20 July.

Official confirmation is yet to be released as Turkmenistan is a very closed country when it comes to public information.

Turkmenistan and Belarus cooperate in a large $1 billion-worth project to construct an advanced potash mining complex with the output capacity of 1.4 million tons annually. The complex was constructed by the Belarusian state company Belgorkhimprom.

Last spring, Turkmenistan’s state chemical monopoly Turkmenchimiya filed a case with the trade disputes court in Stockholm against the Belarusian side, seeking a compensation of losses. The potash mining complex, constructed by Belarusians, does not produce even 5% of the promised capacity, according to the Turkemistan’s company.

Minsk, in turn, said earlier that Turkmenistan had indebted nearly $200 million to Belarusian companies and the country’s budget.