The health minister then drank the concoction at a press conference.
The scale of the current crisis may be making IFIs rethink their longstanding policy of uncritically relaying Turkmen government data.
A third wave of the coronavirus pandemic is sweeping through Emerging Europe. While Russia is expecting to reach herd immunity in the next two months, most other countries of the region have only just started their mass immunisation programmes.
The president gets another title, ignores soaring food prices, starts a charity, and pens a ditty to his favourite city. This and more in our weekly Turkmenistan briefing.
Since shepherding Azerbaijan’s military victory last autumn, Turkey has been on a Silk Road charm offensive. The challenge is turning talk into action.
The president makes an unprecedented admission: Turkmenistan is deep in the red.
With economies primed to rebound as pandemic restrictions are loosened, consumer prices could rise even further, reawakening an issue that has long been ignored.
It has been an exceptional month for commodity markets, with growing inflation expectations increasing investor interest in the assets. Meanwhile, fundamental developments, particularly in the oil market, have only provided a further boost.
The president's sudden buck-passing to specialists is a little anxiety-inducing, since it may indicate something is wrong.
New technology said to have discovered gas field emissions that have the planet-warming impact of driving 250,000 internal-combustion cars.
A handful of rare protests have sparked speculation that the regime could soon be dealing with an explosion of discontent. The evidence for that, however, remains thin.
Unlike his predecessor, the new US president will at least take an interest in issues such as Georgia's deep divisions, organised crime in the Kyrgyz government and Nagorno-Karabakh. But his in-tray is rather full with other pressing matters.