Uzbek Insider Takes Helm of $850 Million Gas Project Amid Sanctions

Control of an $850 million gas-storage development in Uzbekistan linked to sanctioned Russian tycoon Gennady Timchenko, a close associate of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has been transferred to an obscure offshore firm owned by an Uzbek political insider with whom Timchenko has commercial ties, an RFE/RL investigation has found. Expansion of the underground gas-storage facility at Uzbekistan’s largest gas field, near the town of Gazli in the southwestern Bukhara region, is overseen by a Russian-Uzbek joint venture called Gazli Gas Storage.The…