Pandemic Profits: Uzbek COVID Response Shown To Benefit Political Insiders

In March 2020, Uzbek President Shavkhat Mirziyoev launched a $1 billion fund to deal with the coronavirus crisis. By June 2021, the cost of fighting the pandemic had spiraled to $8 billion. An investigation by RFE/RL's Uzbek Service identified possible causes for some of the excess spending: no-bid government contracts for medical and quarantine facilities, granted to companies controlled by close allies of the president.