TASHKENT -- Media reports in Uzbekistan say Rustam Azimov, a long-influential official who had been seen as a possible successor to the late President Islam Karimov, has been dismissed from the post of deputy prime minister.

The reports on June 6 said that Azimov has been replaced by former Deputy Finance Minister Jamshid Kuchkarov due to his "move to another post." No specific position was named, and there was no immediate comment from the government.

Azimov, 58, had been seen as one of three main possible successors to Karimov, whose death was announced on September 2 after more than a quarter-century of autocratic rule in the most populous former Soviet republic in Central Asia.

But longtime Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyaev was installed as interim president and then elected in a tightly controlled December 4 vote.

Mirziyaev promised major personnel changes in the government when he was inaugurated on December 14.

Azimov, who for many years combined the responsibilities of finance minister and deputy prime minister responsible for macroeconomic development and foreign investment, was relieved from the post of finance minister two days later. </s> Vice Prime Minister of Uzbekistan Rustam Azimov sacked

AKIPRESS.COM - President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev removed Rustam Azimov from the post of Vice Prime Minister in connection with appointment to another position, a sources close to the matter told UZ24.

Azimov's new position has not yet been reported.

The post of Vice Prime Minister was replaced by former First Deputy Minister of Finance Jamshed Kuchkarev.

Azimov served as Minister of Macroeconomics and Statistics in 2000-2002, Minister of Economy – in 2003-2005, Minister of Finance – in 2005-2016.

At the end of the last year, Azimov was appointed as Deputy Prime Minister, Head of the complex on macroeconomic development, structural reforms, attracting foreign investment and integrated development of regions.

The President has recently criticized Azimov for the failing to control over the activities of financiers saying “I should have fired you!”. </s> Rustam Azimov, who previously served as deputy prime minister of Uzbekistan, has been appointed as the new director general of the Uzbekinvest National Export-Import Insurance Company, a representative of the insurance company told Trend.

Meanwhile, the Uzbek president’s office told Trend that according to a presidential decree, Azimov has been dismissed from his post of the deputy prime minister in connection with the appointment to another position.

Rustam Azimov was the country’s Macroeconomy and Statistics Minister in 2000-2002, Economy Minister – in 2003-2005. He served as Uzbekistan’s First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Finance from 2005 to 2016.

In December 2016, Azimov was dismissed from his position of the Finance Minister and was appointed Uzbekistan’s Deputy Prime Minister. </s> ALMATY: Uzbekistan's deputy prime minister, Rustam Azimov, has left his post after being appointed to another position, Uzbek news websites Kun.uz and Uz24.uz reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources who did not say what his new job would be.

The Uzbek government's press office could not be reached for comment. In charge of economy and finance, Azimov was once seen as a political heavyweight with whom President Shavkat Mirziyoyev initially shared power following the death of veteran leader Islam Karimov last year. </s> ALMATY (Reuters) - Uzbekistan’s once-powerful deputy prime minister, Rustam Azimov, has left his post after being appointed to another position, several Uzbek news websites reported on Tuesday, citing unnamed sources.

The government press office could not be reached for comment on the reports carried by a number of websites. One site, Gazeta.uz., said Azimov would now run the state export-import insurance company, marking a major demotion from his role running the economy and finance.

Azimov was once seen as a political heavyweight with whom President Shavkat Mirziyoyev effectively shared power following the death of veteran leader Islam Karimov last year.

Two news websites, Kun.uz and Gazeta.uz, said deputy finance minister Jamshid Kuchkarov would replace Azimov as deputy PM.

Diplomatic and business sources told Reuters that Azimov was part of a ruling triumvirate which also included state security boss Rustam Inoyatov.

In April, however, sources familiar with the government said Mirziyoyev had moved to consolidate his power by sidelining Azimov and personally overseeing a program of cautious economic change.

That effectively leaves Mirziyoyev and Inoyatov, head of the state security service SNB, as the two men sharing power in Uzbekistan, Central Asia’s most populous nation, potentially further centralizing decision-making. </s> ALMATY (Reuters) - Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has harshly criticized officials in charge of finance and banking, asserting his power above one of two other members of a triumvirate that has ruled since the death last year of leader Islam Karimov.

FILE PHOTO: Uzbekistan's Prime Minister and interim President Shavkat Mirziyoyev leaves a voting booth at a polling station during a presidential election in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, December 4, 2016. REUTERS/Anvar Ilyasov/Pool/File Photo

In a leaked audio recording of a meeting, posted online, a voice recognizable as Mirziyoyev’s berates an official identified by news website Kun.uz as Deputy Central Bank Chairman Saidkamol Khodjaev and criticizing Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Azimov.

The tape confirms that Azimov - one of the ruling triumvirate along with Rustam Inoyatov, head of the SNB state security service - is under pressure. It also suggests Mirziyoyev may make sweeping changes at the central bank which awaits the appointment of a new chairman and is supposed to be preparing a foreign exchange reform.

Sources told Reuters last month that Mirziyoyev has moved to consolidate his power by sidelining Azimov.

In the recording, Mirziyoyev scolds Khodjaev over idleness and corruption among the bank’s lower-level officials.

“Your bankers don’t like to work. Is it possible to make someone work who has enjoyed his post for 10 years? No, because he doesn’t listen to you and gets more money than we do. Don’t be offended, but he gets his bribes,” he says.

He then berates Azimov, who has long been in charge of financial matters, for ignoring those problems.

“If people like Azimov, who have firmly grabbed the system sitting in Tashkent had come down (worked with people in lower levels of the system) we wouldn’t have had this situation,” he says. It is unclear if Azimov was present at the meeting.

Mirziyoyev’s office did not reply to an emailed request for comment from Reuters but it has published a report about a May 30 teleconference chaired by Mirziyoyev in which “officials in charge of certain industries and regions came under strong criticism over lack of responsibility, exactingness and initiative”.

Uzbekistan, a predominantly Muslim nation of 32 million, has been in flux since Karimov died last year after ruling for 27 years. Mirziyoyev became president but effectively shared power with Azimov and Inoyatov.

Azimov’s apparent sidelining effectively leaves Mirziyoyev and security boss Inoyatov as the two men sharing power in Central Asia’s most populous nation. </s> Rustam Azimov was once seen as a potential future president of Uzbekistan but after several months of being made a scapegoat for the country's economic problems, he has reportedly been removed from his post as deputy prime minister.

Uzbek media broke the news of Azimov's dismissal on June 6, roughly six months after former Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyaev was elected president.

After longtime President Islam Karimov's death was announced at the start of September 2016, there was much debate over who would succeed the only president Uzbekistan had ever known as an independent country.

Mirziyaev and Azimov were seen as possible successors, with the head of the National Security Service (SNB), Rustam Inoyatov, acting as kingmaker.

In the period between Karimov's death and the December 4 presidential election, it appeared all three men worked together to preserve an image of stability in Uzbekistan.

Mirziyaev was sworn into office on December 14 and relieved Azimov of the post of finance minister the next day, but Azimov remained a deputy prime minister in charge of macroeconomic development, structural reform, management of foreign investment, education, and science.

In January, Mirziyaev criticized Azimov for the failure of the bank-card payment system in Uzbekistan, whereby salaries, pensions, and other payments are deposited directly into banks and people are expected to withdraw money from automatic teller machines. State media reported on a pensioners' protest in the southern city of Denau, where elderly people complained they could not access their pensions reliably using the bank cards they had been given.

It was a rare event in a country where protests are broken up quickly and organizers taken away by police, and another indication Azimov's days in government were probably numbered.

At a special government meeting on investment on May 29, Mirziyaev lashed out at the country's ineffective banking system and bankers, questioning why a promised $2 billion investment from Turkey had failed to materialize.

Mirziyaev laid the blame on Azimov. "If Azimov, working in Tashkent, had controlled these matters from top to bottom, this wouldn't have happened," Mirziyaev said.

Mirziyaev's choice of words show his reputed disdain for urbane bureaucrats who work in offices; as prime minister, he was known for traveling around Uzbekistan, visiting factories and farms.

After the dressing-down on May 29, Azimov requested that he be released from his post, saying he was tired of taking the blame for all of Uzbekistan's financial woes.

The Gazeta.uz website reported that Azimov was put in charge of the state export-import insurance company Uzbekinvest.

The post of chairman of the Central Bank remains vacant following the May 23 death of longtime head Fayzulla Mullajonov, but it appears unlikely Azimov will be named as his replacement.

Azimov had been in the Uzbek government since 1998 -- always involved in finance, and including two stints as finance minister -- after spending the first years after Uzbekistan's independence as the country's point man dealing with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development.

His replacement as deputy prime minister is Jamshid Kuchkarov, who was serving as deputy finance minister.

Zamira Eshanova of RFE/RL's Uzbek Service contributed to this report. The views expressed in this blog post do not necessarily reflect those of RFE/RL </s> ALMATY, Kazakhstan: Ex-Soviet Uzbekistan’s new interim president Shavkat Mirziyoyev has ruled out military alliances, the government said Friday, following the same course as the late veteran strongman Islam Karimov.

Mirziyoyev — who served as the Central Asian country’s prime minister for nearly 13 years — is the frontrunner to replace Karimov in a presidential vote expected to take place within three months.

“The firm position of our country, as before, is non-membership in all military-political alliances and not allowing other states’ military bases and facilities on the territory of Uzbekistan,” Mirziyoyev told lawmakers, according to a foreign ministry statement.

“No one should doubt that any attempt by internal and external forces to encroach on the sovereignty and independence of our country will be severely suppressed.”
Uzbekistan Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Azimov is dismissed by President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, who had earlier criticized Azimov for failing to control financiers' activities. He is replaced by former Deputy Finance Minister Jamshed Kuchkarev.