The cracks and fissures of Central Asia’s 19th-century Great Game power struggles and political instability remain hidden just below the surface of the region’s deserts. Occasionally, there is a small shift, but enough to allow long-forgotten problems to reveal themselves.
Late last month, a Great Game-styled clandestine plot with a potentially destabilizing force occurred in Uzbekistan. Gunmen failed in their assassination attempt against a top national figure in Uzbekistan, Komil Allamjonov, a vocal, pro-democracy reformer, advocate for freedom of speech and the president’s former press secretary.
According to Uzbekistan’s General Prosecutor’s Office, at 1:40 a.m. on October 26, two individuals fired five gunshots at Allamjonov’s Range Rover, driven by a civilian identified only as S.S. (the prosecutor’s office has not disclosed his identity). Allamjonov’s car had stopped at a railway crossing on Ifor Street in the Kibray District of Tashkent, the Uzbekistan capital. Allamjonov was being driven toward his home. The attackers fled the scene immediately, and no one was injured. Since then, four conspirators have been captured, and the office of the Uzbekistan General Prosecutor continues its investigation.
Allamjonov, the former head of the presidential administration’s Department of Communications and Mass Media, is credited with helping to open Uzbekistan's government and leading outreach to international community, most notably with West. Even though he left government service earlier this year, he is still viewed by many as one of Uzbekistan’s most influential representatives for promoting democracy and closer cooperation with the West. Now in the private sector, he is working to bring investment and advanced technology to Uzbekistan.
During his government service, Allamjonov’s pro-West campaign proved successful. During the same week in December 2020, The Economist named Uzbekistan the "country of the year," the magazine’s honor for the state that has "improved the most" over the past year; CNN featured the architecturally rich country as a Top Travel Destination for 2020.
Born in 1984, Allamjonov was an entrepreneur in the media sector before entering politics in 2018, when he was appointed press secretary. He was known for supporting the reform agenda of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev, working toward enhanced freedom of speech, independent journalism and greater transparency in state institutions.
Allamjonov’s initiatives at modernization frequently meet resistance from the entrenched bureaucracy. Observers of Uzbekistan say that Allamjonov’s work as a government reformer threatens individuals inside and outside of Uzbekistan who are committed to the corrupt backroom ways of doing business and an antiquated public administration system inherited from the old Soviet bureaucracy.
Political strife and assassination are not new to Uzbekistan. In 1924, Uzbekistan became a constituent republic in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). From the 1930s to the 1970s, Stalinist-styled leaders in Moscow routinely executed noncompliant Uzbek leaders and replaced them with Russian officials while permitting acquiescent Uzbek leaders limited autonomy. The Russians and Uzbeks struggled through the collapse of the USSR, and eventually, Uzbekistan declared its independence from Moscow in August 1991 and became a member of the UN in March 1992.
However, the assassination attempt on Allamjonov is the first against a prominent figure in Uzbekistan's recent history. It is unlikely that ordinary citizens attempted to kill Allamjonov. The Allamjonov conspirators are likely to be well-connected to a regional power structure with easy access to difficult-to-obtain firearms. A Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty investigation revealed a link to Chechen hitmen. It is reasonable to conclude that, at a minimum, the conspirators intended to send a message to Allamjonov and like-minded reformers -- halt Uzbekistan’s progress toward international norms and closer relations with the West.
The General Prosecutor’s Office has not disclosed the type of firearm used in the attack, although Ozodlik radio news reports that the assailants fired five shots from a Makarov pistol. Uzbekistan civilian firearms are required to be single-shot only and must have a magazine capacity limited to 10 bullets.
For over 150 years, explorers, fortune seekers, merchants, bandits and army officers have crisscrossed the mountains and deserts of Central Asia which is now Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan. Their official and personal missions and mandates have varied from stopping British colonialism to fame and fortune, slavery and adventure. Always, the order of the day is intrigue. It is possible that last month’s attempted assassination of Allamjonov may bring Uzbekistan into a new and difficult political period rooted in a different era.
Gregory Tosi is former congressional aide and Washington, D.C.-based attorney.
