When the Soviet Union collapsed almost a quarter-century ago, the new nation of Turkmenistan had grand hopes. Landlocked, and with only 5 million people, it nevertheless hoped to ride its vast natural gas reserves to prosperity: The “Kuwait of Central Asia” was the dream.
A stifling dictatorship, combined more recently with falling prices for oil and gas, instead has led Turkmenistan to a dead end. With Russia having its own troubles, China is pretty much the only customer for Turkmenistan’s gas, and revenue is falling. The government has had to suspend free utility services for residents, and some state-owned companies are having trouble paying wages. Meanwhile, Islamist militants are said to be pressing in across Turkmenistan’s long border with Afghanistan.
The rulers’ response to this bad news has been to try to stifle the reporting of it. The government already controlled all media inside the country, so Turkmen were increasingly relying on dispatches from Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the U.S.-funded, Prague-based network that in much of the world continues to supply the only accurate news. An intrepid team of eight reporters filed on economic conditions, investigated child labor and judicial abuses and monitored growing tensions at the border. People inside the country followed on shortwave radio or the Internet.