The media in Uzbekistan and Russia are full of reports about the heroic deed of Khairullo Ibadullaev, a native of the Kashkadarya region. On 22 February, at around 1 p.m., while at work in the municipal services department, he saved a seven-year-old boy who had fallen from a seventh-floor window on Petrozavodskaya Street in St. Petersburg, thereby preventing his imminent death.

Despite their injuries, both the child and his rescuer survived. The utility worker has already given interviews to local publications, recounting the incident.

Reports of the rescue of the autistic child by a migrant worker from Uzbekistan spread rapidly in the media. On 23 February at 13:50 Moscow time, Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of the RT news agency, announced that Khairullo Ibadullaev would receive 1 million roubles for his actions.

A few hours after the publication, Khairullo publicly thanked everyone for the financial assistance.

If it had not been for Khayrullo Ibadullayev’s statement that his dream was to obtain Russian citizenship, as well as the substantial award from Simonyan, the Uzbek authorities would hardly have noticed his feat at all—just as they failed to acknowledge the heroic act of Olimjon Ibragimov, who saved several people during a fire in St. Petersburg in April 2024.

Unable to come up with anything better, the authorities bypassed all established procedures and awarded Ibadullaev the Zhassorat (Courage) medal, turning his personal feat into a blatant PR stunt.

According to the law ‘On the Establishment of the Zhassorat Medal,’ it is intended primarily for military personnel, special services and law enforcement officers for actions related to ensuring national security, and is awarded only on the official recommendation of the relevant authorities. It is impossible to prepare a full ‘objective assessment’ of a candidate and submit it to the president in a single day, which makes this award a clear violation of procedure and an instrument of political showmanship.

Undoubtedly, Khairullo Ibadullaev’s act was courageous, but it was committed outside Uzbekistan and does not meet the criteria for a state award. In order not to appear completely passive, at 9 p.m. Tashkent time on 23 February, the press service of the President of Uzbekistan officially announced that Khairullo would be awarded the Zhassorat medal, turning his personal feat into a farce of propaganda.

The Mirziyoyev regime’s huge troll factory instantly switched into PR mode: ‘Look, our brave compatriot!’ — as if saving someone else’s child makes the country rich and developed. Loyal bloggers unanimously picked up on this line, turning a private act of courage into a political spectacle.

Notably, the propagandists of the Mirziyoyev regime deliberately ignore Khairullo Ibadullaev’s intention, as expressed to REGNUM journalists: “to learn Russian well and get the opportunity to apply for Russian citizenship. That’s my dream. But I understand that my Russian is poor. I will study and study, and work.”

At the same time, no one asks the obvious question: why is a citizen of the ‘new, rapidly developing Uzbekistan’ forced to look for work in Russia in November 2025, a country where war has been going on for four years? Obviously, things in Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s ‘new Uzbekistan’ are so catastrophic that people are fleeing their homeland, risking their lives for a piece of bread. Meanwhile, the authorities triumphantly hand out medals, devaluing the very meaning of state awards, basking in the glory of others and skilfully masking the real social catastrophe that is destroying the lives of ordinary people as ‘heroism’.