Uzbekistan’s leader Islam Karimov was confirmed dead on September 2 after reports surfaced last week that he was gravely ill.
Islam Karimov, 78, had been the authoritarian ruler of Uzbekistan since independence in 1991. His death creates many questions for a nation that has never lived under any other ruler.
Karimov had been hospitalized with a brain hemorrhage, according to his daughter’s Facebook page.
Rumors of Karimov’s death circulated for about a week in the absence of any specific information on the status of his health.
“They can’t even give us the concrete information. Even in death, Karimov is a wily fox,” said Steve Swerdlow, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch, the day before Karimov’s death was announced.
Karimov’s eldest daughter, Gulnara Karimova, was once thought to be his heir but an apparent power struggle in late 2013, coupled with several money-laundering investigations abroad, led to Ms. Karimova being placed under house arrest.
This feud was thought to be part of a larger internal power struggle and caused a rupture in the Karimov family.
Rise to Power
Karimov rose to prominence under Mikhail Gorbachev and was appointed the first secretary of the Uzbek Communist Party in 1989. The following year he became president of the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic when Uzbekistan gained greater autonomy from the USSR.
When Uzbekistan seceded from the Soviet Union at the end of the Cold War and declared independence, Karimov kept his grip on the country.
