NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / World

Uzbekistan's only leader in intensive care

Washington Post
29 Aug, 2016 08:53 PM4 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Uzbek President Islam Karimov meets with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his delegation at the Palace of Forums in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Photo / AP

Uzbek President Islam Karimov meets with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry and his delegation at the Palace of Forums in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Photo / AP

The man who has ruled Uzbekistan since the fall of the Soviet Union has suffered a stroke and is in intensive care, his daughter said on Monday, raising questions about stability and succession in one of the most autocratic and closed countries in the world.

Islam Karimov, 78, a former Communist Party leader and four-term president of the Central Asian country, had a cerebral hemorrhage on Saturday and is "receiving treatment in an intensive care unit," his daughter Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva wrote in her verified accounts on Instagram and Facebook.

Karimov, who yields unrivaled power in the country of 31 million, has not publicly named a successor.

"His condition is considered stable," Karimova-Tillyaeva wrote. "At the moment, it is too early to make any predictions about his future health."

The remarks were the first details to emerge about the nature of Karimov's illness from the country's ruling circles. A day earlier, the Cabinet of Ministers published a cryptic statement saying that Karimov had been hospitalized and "would require a certain amount of time for medical assessment and treatment."

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

"I think that the government only published that when it realized that Islam Karimov was very, very sick," said Daniil Kislov, the editor-in-chief of Fergana.ru, a news site that broke the story earlier that day.

March 12, 2002, U.S, President George W. Bush, right, meets with the President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, left, in the Oval Office at the White House. Photo / AP
March 12, 2002, U.S, President George W. Bush, right, meets with the President of Uzbekistan, Islam Karimov, left, in the Oval Office at the White House. Photo / AP

In 27 years in power, Karimov has built a totalitarian state best known in the West for its brutality and isolation, for the torture of political prisoners and a yearly cotton harvest produced by forced labor. Steve Swerdlow, a researcher at Human Rights Watch, said that the country is holding thousands of political prisoners, far more than other former Soviet regimes, and that it is "known for political and religious repression that is unrivaled in the region."

Karimov cast his rule as a bulwark against the spread of Islamic extremism in the region and used an attempt on his life in 1999 by the militant Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan to justify mass arrests of Muslims in the country. He also found a role as an ally to the United States in the war on terror, allowing U.S. troops to use the country's Karshi-Khanabad Air Base as a staging point during the invasion of Afghanistan and until 2005.

Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

The methods used in Uzbekistan's internal crackdown on political and religious enemies were brutal. In one case in 2002, Uzbek authorities were accused of boiling several prisoners, alleged Islamists, while still alive. In 2005, Karimov is believed to have ordered troops to fire on protesters in the eastern city of Andijan, killing hundreds in a massacre that furthered the country's isolation. Uzbekistan soon evicted the United States from the air base due to criticism from Washington.

"That moment defined the way that he has ruled," Swerdlow said of Andijan. "It's a classic authoritarian complex of insecurity and overwhelming strength."

Karimov, who was named the Communist Party boss of Uzbekistan in 1989, is the oldest of Central Asia's leaders, a cadre of former Soviet functionaries who will cede power in a series of important political transitions in the coming years.

For many years, a possible successor to Karimov's rule was considered to be his older daughter, Gulnara. But after she was named in international corruption probes and gained a wide following on social networks, she disappeared from public view and was reported to be under house arrest in 2014.

Karimov has a close circle of political allies, Kislov said. The most likely successor, he said, is Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

Mirziyoyev is thought to be friendly toward Russia, particularly because of family ties to Russian-Uzbek oligarch Alisher Usmanov. But there is little indication of how Uzbekistan's domestic or international policy might change under a new leader.

"Only one man has ever run Uzbekistan's politics, and that is Islam Karimov," Kislov said. "How another man would act when an authoritarian leader dies or is incapacitated ... we simply don't know."

Save

    Share this article

Latest from World

World

Trump ‘very unhappy’ with Putin on Ukraine, hints at sanctions

05 Jul 06:38 AM
Entertainment

Cause of death revealed as Julian McMahon, 56, dies after private battle

05 Jul 04:42 AM
Sport

Emma Raducanu criticises Wimbledon electronic line calls after loss

05 Jul 03:26 AM

There’s more to Hawai‘i than beaches and buffets – here’s how to see it differently

sponsored
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.

Latest from World

Trump ‘very unhappy’ with Putin on Ukraine, hints at sanctions

Trump ‘very unhappy’ with Putin on Ukraine, hints at sanctions

05 Jul 06:38 AM

US President frustrated after a chat with the Russian leader about the Ukraine war.

Cause of death revealed as Julian McMahon, 56, dies after private battle

Cause of death revealed as Julian McMahon, 56, dies after private battle

05 Jul 04:42 AM
Emma Raducanu criticises Wimbledon electronic line calls after loss

Emma Raducanu criticises Wimbledon electronic line calls after loss

05 Jul 03:26 AM
Texas flash flood death toll rises to 24

Texas flash flood death toll rises to 24

05 Jul 03:26 AM
From early mornings to easy living
sponsored

From early mornings to easy living

NZ Herald
  • About NZ Herald
  • Meet the journalists
  • Newsletters
  • Classifieds
  • Help & support
  • Contact us
  • House rules
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of use
  • Competition terms & conditions
  • Our use of AI
Subscriber Services
  • NZ Herald e-editions
  • Daily puzzles & quizzes
  • Manage your digital subscription
  • Manage your print subscription
  • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
  • Subscribe to Herald Premium
  • Gift a subscription
  • Subscriber FAQs
  • Subscription terms & conditions
  • Promotions and subscriber benefits
NZME Network
  • The New Zealand Herald
  • The Northland Age
  • The Northern Advocate
  • Waikato Herald
  • Bay of Plenty Times
  • Rotorua Daily Post
  • Hawke's Bay Today
  • Whanganui Chronicle
  • Viva
  • NZ Listener
  • Newstalk ZB
  • BusinessDesk
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • iHeart Radio
  • Restaurant Hub
NZME
  • About NZME
  • NZME careers
  • Advertise with NZME
  • Digital self-service advertising
  • Book your classified ad
  • Photo sales
  • NZME Events
  • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
TOP