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Politics

Tashkent puts a former prosecutor in charge of defence and fills the Syrdarya seat

Shavkat Mirziyoyev appointed major general Botir Kudratkhodjaev defence minister on Monday, after the Legislative Chamber approved him the same day, replacing lieutenant general Shukhrat Khalmukhamedov, who had held the post since November 2024. A second decree made Doniyor Kadirov acting governor of Syrdarya region, the seat Erkinjon Turdimov left last week for the education and science ministry.

By CAW Staff13 October 2026
A two-storey concrete building in cross-section on a desert plain, the lower office lit by an amber lamp and the upper office empty.

Kudratkhodjaev has been first deputy interior minister and head of the ministry’s operational-search department since January, Gazeta.uz reported at 19:14 from the decree. Before that he headed the emergencies ministry and served as deputy prosecutor general and military prosecutor, the outlet wrote. He was prosecutor of Khorezm region from 2020, director of the enforcement bureau at the Prosecutor General’s Office from 2017, prosecutor of Tashkent in 2016 and 2017 and of Surkhandarya from 2014.

Khalmukhamedov, a lieutenant general, had been defence minister since 24 November 2024 and before that first deputy minister and chief of the General Staff, by Spot’s account. He was relieved in connection with a transfer to other work, the standard formula, and no new post was named.

Before that he headed the emergencies ministry and served as deputy prosecutor general and military prosecutor, the outlet wrote.

Kadirov comes from the presidential administration, where he ran the department for public safety and the rule of law from 14 July 2025, after nearly two years as the president’s adviser on coordinating law-enforcement and oversight bodies, press secretary Sherzod Asadov said, citing the decree. He is acting governor. Turdimov’s move to first deputy prime minister and minister of education and science was CAW’s item on Monday.

The Syrdarya seat produced a false start. A report that Zainilobiddin Nizomiddinov had been named acting governor at a meeting with the prime minister was denied by the regional administration, which said no such meeting took place, Podrobno.uz wrote, and Gazeta.uz marked its own item on him as refuted.

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