As Uzbeks went to the polls on October 27 to cast their votes in largely meaningless local and parliamentary elections, two grave-looking men appeared in a video discussing a high-profile shooting that had taken place in Tashkent the day before.
They even claimed to be the men behind the triggers.
"Pranksters!" read one of the most popular comments under the post where the viral video appeared on Facebook.
Or perhaps not.
Uzbek authorities have said little publicly about their investigation into what they have called the attempted assassination of political heavyweight Komiljon Allamjanov, although they have confirmed the arrests of four men in connection with the incident.
The local media has been gagged from reporting any information not released through official channels.
But what RFE/RL's Uzbek Service has learned from sources in Uzbek law enforcement suggests that the plot behind the botched hit is thickening.
And for the moment, the narrative is swinging far too close to President Shavkat Mirziyoev's ruling family for comfort.
A Little Bit Of Seoul
In recent years, the 40-year-old Allamjonov has been both a political heavyweight and a publicly visible mentor to Mirziyoev's daughter, Saida Mirziyoeva, who turned the same age as him this week.
Mirziyoeva is regularly mentioned in conversations about her father's long-term succession planning.
Until recently, they were the two most important figures in Mirziyoev's presidential administration besides Mirziyoev.
At the end of September, in an appearance with Mirziyoeva, Allamjonov announced his exit from his position as head of the administration's Information Policy Department, ostensibly to pursue projects in the private sector.
Nobody really believed in those plans, including Allamjonov's manifold enemies, who resented Allamjonov for his proximity to the Shavkat-Saida axis and because of his advocacy of liberalizing reforms early in Mirziyoev's reign.
Still, few observers of Tashkent's gray political scene would have expected that pressure to culminate in whatever it was that happened on October 26, when a Land Rover carrying Allamjonov was hit with multiple bullets not far from his home in the Qibray region outside Tashkent.
But back to the two men in the video, and specifically the one wearing the white T-shirt -- Shokhrukh Ahmedov.
In the days after the incident, RFE/RL's Uzbek Service was able to obtain copies of two identity documents pertaining to Ahmedov, as well as confirmation from law enforcement that both he and the man that appeared alongside him were among the four arrested.
The identity of the second man in the video has yet to be established, and the authorities have not named any suspects.
According to a law enforcement source, after the shooters failed to hit either Allamjonov or his driver in the early hours of October 26, the two assailants who opened fire on the car with pistols escaped on electric scooters.
They were then able to take a car to the eastern city of Ferghana, where they took refuge in a nightclub called Seoul before exiting through a back door.
At some point prior to their arrest, they shot a video that was a truly muddled affair.
"We organized the attack on Allamjonov," says the man identifiable as Ahmedov.
"We are heading to the police to surrender," he adds. "We've decided to come out because deaths and other incidents occur in police custody. If anything happens [to us], the police will be responsible."
"As you see, we are going [to the police] in good shape," Ahmedov's colleague chimes in.
Then Ahmedov throws his audience a curveball.
"The [news] being circulated about the assassination attempt on Komil Allamjonov, is, in fact, not an assassination [attempt]. This act was committed in the best interest of [Allamjonov].... We've done this only for the money. There were people who promised us money for this," he says.
Chechen Connections
That video subsequently went viral, bolstering rumors that Allamjonov might somehow have plotted his own near demise. Around that time, a man claiming to be a close relative of Ahmedov contacted RFE/RL's Uzbek Service, pushing the same idea.
But law enforcement sources of RFE/RL's Uzbek Service say this popular theory is not being seriously considered and note that Ahmedov and his collaborators had very serious intentions.
Those same sources say that in 2021, Ahmedov was arrested in Turkey and spent seven months in jail.
The case that he was jailed in connection with was a well-reported one, although Ahmedov's name only featured in Turkish press reports when the number of arrests rose from six to eight in November of that year.
It concerned an alleged plot to assassinate Turkish-based critics of Chechen leader Ramzan Kadyrov, an ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Reports attributed their unexpected releases -- despite facing sentences of 15 to 20 years -- to Kadyrov's personal intervention.
Prior to that moment, from around 2019, Ahmedov had been working informally in Turkey as a debt collector. When he returned to Tashkent, he was not arrested and worked as a driver.
The duo's decision to park outside the Seoul nightclub in Ferghana, 240 kilometers from Uzbekistan's capital, before entering the club and then fleeing, is another jarring development.
For some time prior to the shooting, RFE/RL's Uzbek Service was reporting on a major standoff between Allamjonov and Mirziyoeva, on the one hand, and Otabek Umarov, the deputy head of Mirziyoev's presidential security.
Beyond his formal role, Umarov is the country's most-followed Instagram blogger, a patron of Uzbek sports, and the husband of Mirziyoeva's younger sister, Shahnoza.
Like Allamjonov, Umarov has been the subject of multiple RFE/RL investigations focusing on allegations of corruption and conflicts of interest.
This summer, sources told RFE/RL's Uzbek Service that Umarov and Allamjonov were in conflict over a secretive task force allegedly loyal to Umarov that was engaged in mob-style shakedowns of businessmen and political notables.
The 'Task Force'
According to corporate documents, the Seoul nightclub in Ferghana is co-owned by sisters Yelena and Natalia Fen, whose family is connected to Umarov and Shahnoza Mirziyoeva in several ways.
In comments to RFE/RL's Uzbek Service last week, at least two sources confirmed that Natalia Fen and Shahnoza Mirziyoeva had a close friendship that included a time when they both lived in Seoul, where Natalia's late father, Vitaliy Fen, served as Uzbekistan's ambassador.
After Mirziyoev came to power following long-ruling leader Islam Karimov's death, Natalia Fen found employment in Uzbekistan's Preschool Education Ministry, a newly introduced ministry where Shahnoza had a top post.
There is no reason to suggest that any of this shows the Fens knew about the incident involving Allamjonov.
But two law enforcement sources did suggest a connection between Natalia Fen's common-law husband, Javlon Yunusov, and the man who sought refuge in the nightclub co-owned by Fen: Ahmedov.
According to those sources, Ahmedov acted a personal bodyguard and driver for Yunusov, who they said is in turn a senior member of the "task force" that Umarov purportedly leads.
RFE/RL's Uzbek Service was unable to verify the information about Yunusov, who was also described as a key player in the pharmaceutical sector.
All very dizzying, and at present, far from conclusive.
But at this stage it would surely be worthwhile for a top official -- perhaps President Mirziyoev -- to clear the air.
That would probably be the protocol in many authoritarian countries, let alone democratic ones.
Not Uzbekistan, though, despite multiple sources in law enforcement insisting in conversations with RFE/RL that the case was under the head of state's personal control.
In fact, from a look at the top news among Uzbek media, you would barely know that a political heavyweight had narrowly avoided death.
