Turkmenistan's natural gas: mixed blessing
A weekend deal with Russia for a pipeline will raise revenues for the ex-Soviet country, but some worry how those will be spent.
from the May 15, 2007 edition
Page 2 of 3
President controls much of gas revenues
Today, the capital's calm veneer – sepulchral expanses of white marble blocks interrupted by few people, advertisements, or bits of trash – could lull one into thinking that Turkmenistan had entered the Golden Age proclaimed by Niyazov. But local residents, still feeling too vulnerable to give their names, paint a starker picture.
Under the previous president, "for the first time in my life, I saw people hunting through garbage to make a living.... How can that be a good life?" asks a middle-aged man.
"There's no work, no food, no education, no training, no pensions – everything that should be in a normal, civilized country," another adds.
Tom Mayne, a campaigner with the anti-corruption advocacy group Global Witness, says Turkmenistan's resource wealth benefited a precious few. "If you look around at the country, you see all these fabulous marble buildings, opulent palaces, mosques," he says. "You kind of get a suggestion of where the money is going. Under Niyazov, it didn't seem to be going to the people."
Part of the problem, Mr. Mayne says, is that state spending is nearly impossible to track. His group's April 2006 report on the Turkmen gas trade estimates that up to 75 percent of government revenue is channeled into a series of opaque reserve funds, many of which are controlled directly by the president.
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