TASHKENT -- The son-in-law of Uzbekistan’s president is building a secretive multimillion-dollar residential compound in a pricey district of this Central Asian capital, a project for which some two dozen homes have been razed, an investigation by RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service has found. Multiple sources familiar with the project say Otabek Umarov, who serves as deputy head of security for his father-in-law, Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoev, pressured residents to move to make way for the development on 1.5 hectares of prime Tashkent real estate with an estimated value of some $20 million.
The project is the latest example of Umarov’s access to significant wealth that stands seemingly at odds with the official salary he draws as a public servant. Mirziyoev assumed the presidency pledging greater transparency and reforms in Central Asia’s most populous country following the 2016 death of his dictatorial predecessor, Islam Karimov. But multiple RFE/RL investigations have revealed how political insiders, including Mirziyoev’s own relatives, continue to profit in lucrative and opaque state dealings.
Umarov, 40, is the most prominent among these relatives. He is widely seen as a behind-the-scenes power broker among Uzbek political and economic elites in the gas-rich nation of nearly 37 million. And while he has no known official income streams beyond his state job, Umarov regularly flaunts his expensive tastes on social media, including luxury watches and cars.
The compound un.