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Turkmenistan President Tries to Dispel Death Rumor With TV Appearance

Turkmenistan President Tries to Dispel Death Rumor With TV Appearance

(Bloomberg) -- Turkmenistan President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov made his first appearance on state television after a rumor of his death spread earlier in the week.

Berdymukhamedov was shown driving a car through empty streets in the capital, Ashgabat, before reviewing plans for a new district in the city in a cavernous room together with the local governor Durdylyev Shamukhammet. He appeared to take particular interest in a number of planned bus shelters in the footage, shown on the Wednesday evening news. It was not clear when the clips were filmed.

The president was reported dead on July 21 by a political scientist who later retracted his statement after the Turkmen embassy in Russia denied it. Earlier Wednesday, Turkmenistan’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement that Berdymukhamedov had spoken by phone with Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev.

“In closed regimes like Turkmenistan, where you get a daily dose of propaganda about the president singing, shooting or writing books, any absence of course sparks rumors,” Turkmen Initiative for Human Rights’ director Farid Tukhbatullin said by phone from Vienna, where he lives in exile. “It’s not unheard of for him to use canned footage, but according to our sources rumors of the president’s death are unsubstantiated.”

Berdymukhamedov has ruled the secretive energy-rich central Asian nation of 5.4 million since December 2006. As the government resisted economic reforms amid declining prices for natural gas sales in recent years, the unofficial value of the manat collapsed and there were reports of widespread food shortages.

The authoritarian leader has also developed a personality cult with eccentric TV appearances that included performing as a DJ, rapping about the country’s tourist appeal with his grandson, and showing off his shooting skills while riding a bicycle. Human Rights Watch described Turkmenistan as one of the world’s “most isolated and oppressively governed” countries under Berdymukhamedov, adding that he and his associates controlled “all aspects of public life.”

To contact the reporter on this story: Jake Rudnitsky in Moscow at jrudnitsky@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Torrey Clark at tclark8@bloomberg.net, Tony Halpin, Gregory L. White

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