A student who raised the issue of evicted tenants was called to the DIA for a “preventive talk”. If the laws work correctly, police officers who called him to have a chat should be disciplined for obstructing the freedom of creativity, for abusing the official power. These and other topics of the ending week are in the Kun.uz digest.
Rahmon demanded from Putin to stop the attitude like during the Soviet Union times
Let’s start our digest with the main political event of the week. President of Tajikistan Emomali Rahmon surprised many with his unexpected speech at the first summit in the format of “Central Asia – Russia” held in Astana on Friday. In his 8-minute emotional speech, he sharply criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin.
At the end of his speech, Rahmon said: “There should be no policy towards the countries of Central Asia like in the former Soviet Union”.
Video messages from compatriots in Russia
After the bombing of the Crimean bridge and the appointment of a new commander of the Russian forces in Ukraine, bombs rained down on many Ukrainian cities on Monday and Tuesday. Following the seriousness of the situation, the Embassy of Uzbekistan in Kiev issued an appeal to compatriots in Ukraine and called them to leave the country.
On October 11, Uzbek students studying at the medical university in the Kursk Oblast of Russia, bordering Ukraine, released a video message and asked the President to transfer their studies to Uzbekistan. In recent times, there has been an increase in rocket attacks.
Another video shared by our compatriots in Russia this week also refers to the war. Siroj Nabiyev, who lives in Moscow, reported that he received a summons from the military commissar. He says that he has never been a citizen of Russia, so he does not have any military records.
Since when did DIA become a censor?
The mobilization in Russia was a headache not only for Moscow, but also for many of our compatriots in Tashkent. Due to the influx of immigrants, rent prices have increased in the capital. There are cases of eviction of tenants who do not want to pay the increased price.
One of such cases was filmed, the video trended the hitherto painful topic of rent. The video shows that a woman is kicking out the female students from the flat and wants to give the house to another person for $600.
Later it turned out that this video was the work of students of the University of Journalism. According to the statement of the university, the 1st-year students decided to take such a video after reading the article entitled “Renting girls live under danger” published by Kun.uz.
It is interesting that the author of the video, who managed to reveal a real social problem together with his fellow students, had to apologize for it. The Department of Internal Affairs of the city of Tashkent found the author, conducted a “preventive talk” with him and published an alarming report about it. In the report, the author of the video was accused of earning a “fake reputation”.
The number of visitors from Russia has increased by 3 times
The rent agitation in Tashkent began before the mobilization announced on September 21, when students arrived in the city. The influx of refugees made the situation more serious. In such circumstances, the government decided to provide additional assistance to students as an exception.
According to the statement of the Cabinet of Ministers, compensation will be paid to first-year students who came from other regions and were not settled in the dormitory for the months of September and October, regardless of whether they have a lease agreement or not.
There is no official information on how many Russians came to Uzbekistan after September 21. According to the figures released by the State Statistics Committee this week, 78,000 Russian citizens entered Uzbekistan for tourist purposes in September. This is 2.7 times more than in April. According to the Ministry of Public Education, 30 children of Russian citizens were admitted to public schools in Uzbekistan from September 21 to October 5.
Against the background of these and other events, the dollar exchange rate crossed the psychological mark of 11,100 soums for the first time since May. Since the beginning of the year, the depreciation of the soum against the dollar was 2.6%.
Toxic air and speed limit in Tashkent
In addition to rental prices, environmental and road safety issues were also relevant during the week. According to hydrometeorologist Erkin Abdulahadov, on October 12 at 18:00, Tashkent ranked 8th among the world’s major cities in terms of air pollution. At this time, PM-2.5 dispersed particles in the air exceeded the standard values.
The speed limit on all streets within the Tashkent small ring road will be reduced from 70 to 60 km/h. Also, the speed has been reduced to 50 km/h on a number of streets.
It is not clear when the news will come into effect. In order to reduce the speed limit to 60 km/h on all streets within the small ring road, the decision of the special commission under the Government must be signed. Installation of “50” signs on a number of streets has begun.
People’s “Open Budget” – 8 trillion soums
Another good news for civil society. Next year, the number of funds allocated to “Open Budget” projects will be increased by 3.5 times. This means that people will decide where to spend 8 trillion soums of the budget, not officials.
What else happened this week?
• A farmer from Kashkadarya moves his cattle to the bank building in the center of Guzar district;
• Construction of a methane filling station related to the regional khokim of Namangan stopped;
• Uzcard privatized in full:
• Low-cost carrier WizzAir launches cheap flights from Abu Dhabi to Samarkand;
• Uzhydromet announces its forecast for this winter.