In the autumn of 2016, Shavkat Mirziyoyev came to power in Uzbekistan in violation of the constitution and with Kremlin support.

Uzbekistan continues to be a kleptocratic regime; the country has already turned into a criminal oligarchic state that is completely controlled by the Kremlin.

Members of Mirziyoyev’s family, his daughters and sons-in-law and their close friends have roles in every branch of government. They control every sphere of the economy, and the extent of their corruption is already much greater than that of Gulnara and Lola Karimova.

This is the context in which, this year, Congressmen Trent Kelly and Congressman Don Bacon introduced a bill to the US Congress to stop applying the Jackson–Vanik Amendment to Uzbekistan.

As an explanation for their initiative, the congressmen argue that the Mirziyoyev government is carrying out radical reforms. Although this is far from the truth—very far from the truth.

The country’s foreign-policy establishment and Uzbek Ambassador to the United States Javlon Vakhabov personally have been using every trick in the book to mislead the American establishment by spreading false and inaccurate information.

The political opposition movement Erkin O’zbekiston considers it premature to talk about terminating the application of the Jackson–Vanik amendment in relation to Uzbekistan, since Mirziyoyev used methods of targeted repression in usurping power in the country on behalf of Russian criminal interests, and the human rights situation has become even more dramatic than it was during the time of Islam Karimov.

And as long as systematic violations of human rights continue in Uzbekistan, and the country’s doors remain closed to the secular and democratic opposition, the Jackson–Vanik amendment should remain in force in relation to Uzbekistan.

We have prepared an extensive report on this issue that will be submitted for consideration to the U.S. Congress.