Mirziyoyev’s Decade: What Next for Uzbekistan?
An Online Panel discussion with Joanna Lillis, Dr Dilmira Matyakubova, Dr Farkhad Tolipov and Dr Franco Galdini. Guest Moderated by Polina Ivanova. 18 March 2026 14.00 gmt
From our anniversary series – Central Asia 35
This year marks thirty-five years of independence for the Central Asian republics and 125 years since the foundation of the Central Asian Society, now the RSAA. To celebrate these two anniversaries, we are hosting a series of events covering Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan looking at their history, current events and what the future might look like for them and for the region as a whole.
As President Shavkat Mirziyoyev marks a decade in power, this panel discussion, the first event in the series, will take stock of how Uzbekistan has evolved since the end of Islam Karimov’s authoritarian rule. Has the promise of renewal and openness been realised, and where has progress stalled? Bringing together experts on the region, the discussion will examine key developments in international relations, domestic politics, economic reform, and efforts to address corruption. Looking ahead, the panel will explore the opportunities and uncertainties shaping Uzbekistan’s trajectory in the years to come.
Joanna Lillis is a Kazakhstan-based journalist and author writing about Central Asia who has lived and worked in the region since 2001. Her reporting has featured in outlets including The Economist, the Guardian, the Independent and Foreign Policy magazine. Prior to moving to Central Asia, she lived in Russia and worked for BBC Monitoring, the BBC World Service’s global media tracking service. She studied Russian in the Soviet republics of Belorussia and Ukraine before the collapse of the USSR. She is the author of Silk Mirage: Through the Looking Glass in Uzbekistan.
Dr Dilmira Matyakubova is a political scientist from Uzbekistan. She has been conducting field research in Central Asia for the past ten years. She is the author of a forthcoming book Kleptocratic Reputation Laundering and State Crime, which investigates how state crimes are enabled and sustained through the active assistance of domestic and international elites in Uzbekistan. She is also the author of dozens of articles covering nation branding, dispossession of urban property, forced evictions and destruction of cultural heritage in Uzbekistan. She hosts Kleptocracy Series Substack, which is dedicated to discussing elite enabling of corruption and justification of authoritarian violence.
Dr Farkhad Tolipov is a commentator on geopolitics and foreign policy, based in Tashkent. He is the Director of Bilim Karvoni (Caravan of Knowledge), a non-government research institute in Tashkent. Between 1994 and 2005 he taught at the University of World Economy and Diplomacy in Tashkent, where he also received a PhD in political science. During that time he was also a consultant for the Office of the President of Uzbekistan. Since then, he has held a variety of fellowships and lectureships include at the NATO Defence College, Harvard University and the OSCE Academy in Bishkek.
Dr Franco Galdini is a Research Fellow at the Department of Political Science and International Studies, University of Birmingham. His work focuses on the political economy of development in the post-Soviet space, specifically in Uzbekistan and Russia. In 2022, Galdini was awarded the British International Studies Association’s Prize for Best PhD in International Studies for his thesis: The Post-Soviet Space and Uzbekistan in the International Division of Labour: From Transition to Capital Accumulation. His thesis explored how understanding global capital accumulation can aid in demystifying the transformation of Uzbekistan.
Guest Host
Polina Ivanova is a foreign correspondent for the FT covering Russia, Ukraine, and Central Asia. She joined the FT in 2021 in Moscow and is now based in Berlin. She was shortlisted for the George Orwell Prize for Political Journalism in 2022 and for the Foreign Affairs Reporting prize at the British Journalism Awards in 2023. Previously, she covered Russia and Ukraine for Reuters as a Special Correspondent on the investigative team.
