EP112: Islam Karimov

Islam Karimov was the 1st President of Uzbekistan from 1991 until his death in 2016. Terrified by the economic devastation which gripped Russia in the 1990s, Karimov decided that he would rather close the door firmly on market economics if the transition towards it risked even slightly going the same way as Uzbekistan's former masters. And so, Uzbekistan fossilised. The state retained ownership and control of industry. New collectivised farms were established. Foreign currencies were ke...