Since Shavkat Mirziyaev came to power in Uzbekistan, the country’s foreign debt to international financial institutions has increased several times over.

As of the end of December 2020, this figure was over USD 30 billion, including USD 10.6 billion in private-sector debt.

Uzbekistan continues to be a lawless country where everything goes, and corruption and nepotism have become integral components of Mirziyaev’s government.

In a country where there is no real political opposition, where there is no freedom of speech, and where it is impossible to hold peaceful demonstrations, it is nearly impossible to verify how borrowed funds are being spent.

We have reason to believe that the lion’s share of Uzbekistan’s foreign loans are ending up in the hands of Kremlin-backed oligarchs (Alisher Usmanov, Patokh Chodiev, and others), who are using Mirziyaev to bypass US and EU sanctions to get their hands on the equipment and technologies they need for their production needs.

In an effort to mislead the international community, the Kremlin’s political strategists have created in Mirziyaev an image of a Central Asian reformer, who, for his part, makes attractive offers and promises that he has no intention of fulfilling.

We call on international community to direct their attention to the crimes committed by the Mirziyoyev regime and to suspend loans to Uzbekistan until the country’s authorities publicly provide compelling evidence of the intended use of the loans they’ve received.