🇹🇲 Turkmenistan’s Secret Telecom King — If you want a mobile phone in Turkmenistan, you have to sign up with Altyn Asyr, a company with notoriously poor service.
We reveal that this monopoly is run by a relative of Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov, who ceded the presidency of the country’s autocratic regime to his son last month. Read the full story.
👣 A Path of Corruption
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State Support: Altyn Asyr’s poor service isn’t the result of a lack of investment. In 2011 and 2012, Berdimuhamedov authorized spending over $170 million to overhaul the state company’s communications infrastructure.
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Secret Stocks: Shortly after the investment was approved, Berdimuhamedov turned the state-owned Altyn Asyr into a closed joint-stock company that keeps its shareholders secret. Its top executive — the ruling family’s relative — was appointed in secret.
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Competition Banned: Altyn Asyr wasn’t always a monopoly. Russian tech giant MTS was Turkmenistan’s most popular mobile phone operator until the government kicked it out of the country in 2017.
🌐 The Big Picture: This investigation shows that, in addition to the Berdimuhamedov family’s airtight control of Turkmenistan’s political system, they also appear to have grabbed its mobile service market.
This was a collaborative effort with Turkmen.News and Gundogar.org
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