As Uzbekistan freezes amid rampant power shortages in its coldest winter for half a century, there is a million-dollar question on the lips of its shivering citizens. Is the government exporting gas that could be powering heating plants and pumping warmth into people’s homes? Officials are adamant that Tashkent is not sending the valuable commodity abroad. “All exports of gas, including exports to China, have been 100 percent halted,” Behzot Narmatov, head of the Uztransgaz transportation company, stated last month, when public outrage over power outages soared as Arctic temperatures gripped Uzbekistan. He had more ... (full story)