Turkmenistan’s horse-loving dictator is grooming his son

NORTH KOREA is not the only supposed success story in Asia’s fight against covid-19. In the middle of the continent, on the eastern shores of the Caspian Sea, Turkmenistan too has seemingly managed to go the past two years without a single recorded infection. Under President Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov (pictured) its lucky citizens have been living in an “Era of Might and Happiness”. What is more, their president entertains them too, roaring around in racing cars, scoring bullseyes on the rifle range and catching whoppers on fishing expeditions. The economy is said to have grown some 6% last year. The country’s 6m people are prospering.

That, at any rate, is the official picture. The reality is quite different. Wage arrears are rife. The black-market value of the manat, the country’s currency, is a seventh of the official rate. Even the usually upbeat president has fretted about Turkmenistan’s swelling debt, though its precise scale is kept secret. The Asian Development Bank reckons GDP grew a modest 1.6% in 2020 as energy prices slumped and Chinese demand for natural gas fell. Gas accounts for 90% of Turkmenistan’s exports; China for 80% of its trade.