UZBEK PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE DENIES DISMISSAL

C O N F I D E N T I A L TASHKENT 000242 SIPDIS SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/22/2028 TAGS: PGOV ECON KPAO PREL UZ SUBJECT: UZBEK PRIME MINISTER'S OFFICE DENIES DISMISSAL REPORT REF: TASHKENT 237 Classified By: P/E Chief Ted Burkhalter; reasons 1.4 (b, d). ¶1. (C) Summary: Prime Minister Shavkat Mirziyaev's press secretary and others are denying reports that First Deputy SIPDIS Prime Minister Rustam Azimov will be named acting Prime Minister. The reports have touched a raw nerve and open a window on a palace intrigue whose ultimate stakes may be the succession to the Presidency. President Karimov's role in the intrigue is unknown. End summary. ¶2. (C) Radio Free Europe ran an interview late February 21 with Prime Minister Mirziyaev's press secretary, Sherzod Kudratkhojaev, who denied the Uzmetronom internet report and said his boss will remain in office. Russia's Interfax news agency, meanwhile, reported that an official Uzbek Government news service had also denied the report. Mass media inside Uzbekistan (print, telvision, radio) have been entirely silent on the issue, and no governmental denial has appeared online. The report clearly touched a raw nerve in certain quarters, and we suspect Mirziyaev may be fighting a rear-guard action. The report's author, meanwhile, stands by his information (reftel),saying that his source is adamant. ¶3. (C) According to Embassy contacts in the Parliament and the Cabinet of Ministers (names available if needed), National Security Service Chairman Rustam Inoyatov favors Mirziyaev as the next President of Uzbekistan. According to this version of the palace intrigue, Inoyatov has sufficient compromising information on Mirziyaev to ensure his own interests are protected. By the same token, Azimov may be less vulnerable. As Minister of Finance, he very well may have been in a position to take notes on questionable financial transactions of other members of the Government. ¶4. (C) What role President Karimov may have in this palace intrigue is unknown. Will a winner emerge? Is Karimov testing the waters - forcing the players to show their hands? We believe a power play is in motion, but beyond that all is speculation. We believe that Azimov would, as Prime Minister, promote policies that would help ensure the economic growth on which Uzbekistan's future stability will so heavily depend. NORLAND