On 29 April 2026, a report was published on the official social media channels of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan, on the dismantling of the “Glamour Gold” pyramid scheme. According to the investigation, the company had been defrauding the public of money for six years by promising to build eco-friendly homes. The information was presented in a distinctly propagandistic tone: the main emphasis was placed on the fact that the dismantling of the fraudulent scheme had been made possible solely thanks to the personal efforts of Colonel Ramazan Ashrapov, head of the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Uzbekistan.

The report included a call from the investigators for the victims to contact the Tashkent City Police Headquarters to give evidence. However, the video itself is puzzling: the fraudsters’ faces had been blurred out.

This raises a legitimate question: how are members of the public supposed to identify the criminals if the authorities have treated their appearance as little short of a state secret?

Colonel Ashrapov’s rhetoric is particularly striking in the video footage. The head of the Investigative Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs directly accused several female activists of ‘obstructing’ the work of law enforcement agencies, threatening them with criminal prosecution for defamation.

The “Erkin O’zbekiston” movement, which has been monitoring the “Glamour Gold” case since January 2026, regards this report as an attempt to manipulate public opinion. In light of this, we consider it necessary to present our position to the public and set out our account of events, based on documented facts and the case file.

The Illusion of Justice and Corrupt Patronage

The release of the Investigative Department’s video is nothing more than a belated response to the investigations carried out by the “Erkin O’zbekiston” movement on 31 January and 13 April 2026. Under pressure from irrefutable evidence and growing public outcry, the Ministry of Internal Affairs found itself forced to abandon its previous tactic of sweeping the issue under the carpet and move towards crafting a narrative that would work in its favour.

As we noted earlier, in the summer of 2025, the owner of “Glamour Gold”, Dmitry Kan, had already been detained; however, just a few days later, officers from the Investigative Department of the Yashnabad District Internal Affairs Coordination Office released him.

On 13 October 2025, the Investigative Department of the Yashnabad District once again suspended the criminal case — under the absurd pretext that it was impossible to identify the person to be charged.

The key factor that finally got the “Glamour Gold” case off the ground was the stance taken by a group of co-investors. Tatyana Lazareva, Gulsin Mingazova, Lyudmila Kazakova and Anna Shcherbakova waged an exhausting battle against the bureaucratic machine for two years.

And while Ashrapov’s department is now demonstrating a show of activity, this is not a credit to the system, but a forced capitulation in the face of facts that the authorities could no longer ignore.

On 2 November 2025, following a personal meeting between female activists and Colonel Ravshan Sultankhodjaev, Head of the Tashkent City Police Department, the Glamur Gold criminal case was reopened and referred to the capital’s Investigative Department for further investigation.

The Wall of Silence: The Betrayal of Bloggers and the Media

The year 2025 became a period of struggle against an unresponsive system for those affected. At the same time, the co-investors tried to seek support from public figures, but encountered an even more cynical obstacle. Local bloggers, naming themselves the “voice of the people”, demanded an exorbitant fee for publishing the victims’ video appeal, turning others’ misfortune into a source of personal gain.

One such propagandist, who truly “hit the big time” following a sycophantic interview with the country’s chief “missionary” and a master of backroom intrigues, cynically declared that he had nothing to do with “social issues”. It would be the height of naivety to expect decent behaviour from someone who sells his conscience by the pound.

The official media also demonstrated their own powerlessness. The local press, which had initially promised to “run at least a hundred reports”, suddenly lost interest after the very first broadcasts, leaving people to face their troubles alone.

In effect, the media themselves confirmed the investors’ worst fears: an unspoken ban had been imposed ‘from above’ on any mention of the “Glamour Gold” scam, and journalists were simply too afraid to cross that line.

“Pocket” Media and Threats to National Security

Against this backdrop, the collective silence of the Public Council attached to the Ministry of the Interior and the Main Directorate of Internal Affairs appears to be the height of shamelessness. Like fish that retreat to the depths at the slightest sign of danger, they have chosen to hide in silence. Its members have completely forgotten that they are meant to be the voice of the people, not mere window dressing for the ministry.

Yet such bodies were originally established as a “bridge” between the authorities and the public. They were intended to serve as a mechanism for monitoring and safeguarding human rights. Today, their membership includes media personalities, editors-in-chief of news agencies, journalists and bloggers. All they do is create a “democratic facade” for Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s “New Uzbekistan”.

Their servile silence in the midst of lawlessness amounts to direct complicity and a betrayal of their own people.

However, the composition of the council raises questions that go beyond mere ethics. National security interests are at stake here. The stance taken by the Ministry of the Interior’s Internal Security Directorate is baffling. The security services are stubbornly ignoring the fact that a citizen of another state sits on the advisory body of the security bloc.

We are talking about Ismat Khushev, a Canadian citizen with a highly dubious reputation. His presence on the board is not merely an unfortunate mistake. It is a direct breach of Section 3 of the “Public Oversight Act“.

Such negligence brings the Ministry, its senior management and its internal security service into disrepute. It calls into question their ability not only to uphold the law, but also to exercise control over their own departments.

Incidentally, a similar situation can be observed in other public councils across the republic.

Under Pressure From the Security Forces: Repression Against the Desperate

In December 2025, a group of affected property investors invited a film crew from EFFECT.UZ to the site. Right at the start of filming, a lieutenant colonel from the Ministry of Internal Affairs arrived and, threatening arrest, demanded that filming cease, describing the gathering as an “unauthorised rally”. In front of the cameras, the officer openly displayed contempt for those present, stating that it made no difference to him whether he was dealing with an ordinary journalist or the head of national television.

He emphasised that any act of disobedience would result in immediate arrest. Shortly afterwards, two further police patrols arrived at the scene, but the property investors and journalists managed to stand their ground and complete the report.

Driven to the brink of despair by the authorities’ inaction, one of the defrauded investors took a desperate step. In an attempt to draw the government’s attention to the Glamour Gold case, she planned to stand on the presidential route holding a placard as the head of state’s motorcade passed by. However, her attempt was thwarted. The woman was taken to the Yunusabad District Internal Affairs Coordination Office, where administrative proceedings were initiated against her. She was only released after being pressured into signing a statement renouncing any public protests.

Faced with this information blackout and pressure, the women activists took the only course of action available to them—to turn to the Erkin O’zbekiston movement.

The Burden of Investigation Falls on Women

In his video, Ashrapov accused the women of “creating obstacles”, but the facts tell a different story: in reality, it was the staff of the Investigative Department themselves who were persistently asking the women for help.

One example is the actions of investigator Captain Komil Abdukhakimov, who urged the activists to go to the leadership of the Tashkent Region State Tax Administration and, as he put it, “kick up a fuss there”, so that the boss would “give a telling-off” to his subordinate who was dragging his feet on the audit of the “Glamour Gold” case.

In an effort to speed up the investigation, four women with young children were forced to travel to the Tashkent Region in search of officials. There, they tracked down Senior Inspector Jamshid Kirgizbaev, explained the situation to him, and persuaded him to issue a written undertaking to expedite the preparation of the report. Having learnt from bitter experience and no longer trusting empty promises, the women insisted on written guarantees.

As a result, Kirgizbaev personally wrote a promissory note, undertaking to deliver the audit report to the Tashkent City Police Headquarters by 17:00 on 19 January of this year.

Here is another example. In March 2026, Major Elmurod Mukhamadaliev, a member of the investigation team (the very same man who fancies a gold-covered steak), kindly suggested that the women themselves “hurry up” the experts brought in by the Tashkent City Police Department to assess the scope and cost of the work at the Glamour Gold sites.

For several days, the mothers and wives, driven to despair, literally “carried” the investigation on their shoulders, climbing the floors of the unfinished high-rise on foot with the experts.

Under the Mirziyoyev regime, such practices have become widespread, a consequence of the deep crisis in the law enforcement sector. A single investigator may have dozens of criminal cases on their books at any one time, making it physically impossible for them to ensure a thorough and timely investigation of each one. Faced with chronic overwork, a lack of time and constant pressure from management, staff often resort to any available means to expedite investigative actions, striving at all costs to speed up the progress of the investigation.

The Minister of Internal Affairs, Aziz Tashpulatov, and the Head of the Tashkent City Police Department, Colonel Sultankhodjaev, personally thanked the women in public for their efforts.

Against the backdrop of these expressions of gratitude from the leadership of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Tashkent City Police Department, Colonel Ashrapov’s actions appear to be a display of extreme cynicism and meanness. As the head of the central apparatus, which for years had artificially paralysed the investigation, Ashrapov stabbed the women activists in the back. In his propaganda video, Ashrapov deliberately engaged in a cynical reversal of roles: he portrayed those who had effectively pulled the investigation out of the quagmire of corruption as the ones responsible for dragging it out. Having smeared and slandered the activists, Ashrapov moved on to outright blackmail, threatening the victims of the construction pyramid scheme with criminal prosecution.

A Show for the Colonel: Extras and Fake Applause

To counter the wave of exposés by the “Erkin O’zbekiston” movement, Colonel Ashrapov resorted to blatant manipulation of public opinion. On his instructions, a staged meeting was organised between the investigation team and ‘loyal and compliant’ property investors. The role of this crowd was simply to provide a decorative backdrop for the official video report: the people were required to obediently feign approval, refrain from asking awkward questions, and express the customary gratitude to the authorities.

On 15 April, just an hour and a half before the meeting was due to start – at 10:00 am – investigator Abdukhakimov made a call to activist Tatyana Lazareva to invite her to take part in the event. Months of campaigning in the rain and snow had taken their toll: on 12 April, Tatyana was rushed to hospital, and on the morning of the 13th, she underwent surgery at the Republican Scientific Centre for Emergency Medical Care.

Other members of the initiative group were also sidelined: Anna Shcherbakova was receiving outpatient treatment, whilst Lyudmila Kazakova and Gulsin Mingazova, having lost their homes and found themselves on the brink of survival, were tied down by strict work schedules.

Taking advantage of the temporary absence of activists capable of asking awkward questions, Ashrapov organised a meeting with a group of victims who had been ‘briefed’ in advance. In certain scenes of this propaganda video, the absurdity reaches truly absurd levels: people left homeless and stripped of their last savings meekly feign joy and applaud those who have ignored their plight for years.

The Concrete Trap and Selective “Anonymity”

At this meeting, officials from the Ministry of the Interior sought to convince the co-investors that the dilapidated building constructed by Glamour Gold did not need to be demolished. According to them, the building merely needed to be ‘slightly reinforced’ and the finishing work completed.

Behind this feigned concern for people lies a cynical and dangerous calculation: to complete the dilapidated building at any cost. For those in charge, this is the only way to cover their tracks and avoid punishment for document forgery and gross technical violations.

The fact that, given the region’s seismic activity, this building could turn into a mass grave at any moment does not, it seems, concern Ashropov and his subordinates.

Any sensible viewer watching Ashropov’s video will naturally ask: why did his “invaluable” experts take such care to conceal the faces of all those arrested and those under house arrest?

Here, the investigation team finds itself in a clearly contradictory position. On the one hand, the Ministry of the Interior is publicly urging new victims to come forward, stating that new cases are being treated as separate investigations. On the other, the department is effectively doing everything it can to prevent the identification of possible perpetrators. Such selective “anonymity” clearly demonstrates that the investigation is focused not on establishing the truth, but on protecting key figures. It is particularly telling that not a single official from the state bodies that, for six years, provided the criminals with a regime of maximum favour, effectively ignoring the destruction of hundreds of people’s lives, has yet been held to account in this case.

The agency’s double standards were clearly evident on 11 April this year at a press conference at the Ministry of Internal Affairs’ Palace of Culture. Responding to a question from journalists about the reasons for publishing photographs of Taftish.uz staff immediately after their arrest, the spokesperson stated that this was necessary “so that all victims could identify them and report to the authorities”. A similar rush to publicise the identities of those arrested was also observed following the detention of Demokrat.uz journalists on 11 February this year.

This raises the question: why, in the case of journalists, is publicity deemed a necessary element of the investigation, whereas in the case of organised fraud, the identities of the criminals are effectively treated as classified information?

The answer is obvious: to the system, journalists are ideological enemies who must be publicly discredited even before the court has reached a verdict. The “construction mafia”, on the other hand, are the financial partners of officials, whose interests are intertwined with those of the corridors of power. The fact that the identities of those involved in the Glamour Gold case are being concealed is not out of concern for the “secrecy of the investigation”, but to guarantee the safety of those who have been feeding off the developers for years.

The Path to Total Control and the Deception of Society

Ramazan Ashrapov and his backers are methodically transforming Uzbekistan into a police state with elements of a “digital concentration camp”. In this system, civic activism is equated with a crime, whilst loyal criminals enjoy the most favourable treatment. The incident involving the journalists from EFFECT.UZ is a clear illustration of this course of action, where the security forces openly act as the developer’s attack dogs.

Ashrapov’s video is an attempt by the system to pass off wishful thinking as reality. The female activists, whose determination and sacrifice paved the way for the truth, have been cynically erased from the history of this case. Today, their names are being silenced and their achievements devalued.

Investors should not celebrate victory before it is won. Recovering funds from shadowy figures—whose identities the investigators are determined to keep secret—will turn into a protracted legal battle, in which only the most resilient and legally savvy will prevail.

The Rights are not Granted, they are Taken: the Call for Unity

Affected property investors must not allow themselves to be lulled into a false sense of security by the glossy image presented by Ashrapov’s propaganda. They must remember: the department that betrayed these courageous female activists will stop at nothing to cover up the traces of its own corrupt collusion with the developer. The system readily sacrifices pawns, just to shield the true beneficiaries from scrutiny. This wall of lawlessness can only be breached through organised, uncompromising struggle.

Our appeal to those affected: do not become mere pawns in other people’s publicity campaigns, and do not allow yourselves to be used for show. Seek to protect your rights through lawful and organised means.

Remember: rights are not granted—they are taken. When state institutions are paralysed by corruption, your courage is the only force left. You are not alone—you have the independent media support of the political movement “Erkin O’zbekiston”.

Don’t give up. Justice doesn’t come on it’s own accord, one needs to fight for it!