The Turkmenistan president’s present to his Russian counterpart last week suggested a twist on the oft-quoted saying: if you want a friend in politics, give them a dog.
At a much-documented meeting in Sochi, Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov gave Vladimir Putin a Central Asian shepherd puppy for the Russian president’s 65th birthday (and perhaps to see if Putin might not feel like resurrecting Turkmen natural gas exports).
Proudly dangling the puppy by the scruff of its neck in front of assembled statesmen and media, Berdymukhamedov said the ancient breed, also known as the alabai, was a “common friend” of Russia and Turkmenistan.
It is not only a popular pet and guard dog in Turkmenistan, but officially listed as part of the national heritage, alongside the revered Akhal-Teke breed of racehorse. Exporting alabai is prohibited, and since February they have been used as police and sniffer dogs by the state security services, under Berdymukhamedov’s orders.
Berdymukhamedov: We have a common friend this is the world’s unique alabai dog. And today I brought this little alabai with me.’ Photograph: Maxim Shemetov/AP
But only alabai are held in presidential favour in Turkmenistan, notorious for its brutal treatment of strays and even pets mistaken for them. This dates back decades to the days of its first president, Saparmurat Niyazov, who banned dogs from the capital city, Ashgabat, on grounds of their “unappealing odour”.
(The dictator did, however, reportedly look to them for guidance on dental hygiene: “I watched young dogs when I was young. They were given bones to gnaw. Those of you whose teeth have fallen out did not gnaw on bones. This is my advice.”)
Alabai notwithstanding, Berdymukhamedov shares his predecessor’s revulsion for dogs. “There’s nothing that gets [the] president more crazy than stray dogs and cats,” wrote one reporter of the multiple mass culls carried out under Berdymukhamedov’s orders. Last year municipal workers planted poisoned food around the city, with many pets counted as collateral damage.
The killings increased in the lead-up to the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, which Ashgabat hosted last month and for which the Turkmen delegation saw no irony in naming an animated alabai, Wepaly, as its mascot. (Berdymukhamedov had input into him, too.)
Wepaly, the alabai mascot of the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games
Under the grimly brilliant headline “Turkmenistan: It’s Murdering Cats and Dogs”, Eurasianet quoted activist Natalya Shabunts’s public appeal to the president “to put an end to the bloodbath”: “The barbaric execution of these unfortunate animals by numerous hunting squads has turned Turkmenistan into a nation of executioners and murderers.”
Sanitation workers, she pointed out, were not nearly so motivated to rid the city of actual vermin such as bedbugs or rats. Shabunts (one of the few activists in Turkmenistan to campaign under her real name) was reportedly later abused for her dog-friendly activism while out walking her two pekingese.
State media subsequently published a report on a new “island of hope” for stray dogs: Turkmenistan’s first animal shelter, apparently set up with the support of government bodies.
No such fate is likely to await Putin’s new pup, however.The Russian president already has two dogs: a Bulgarian shepherd called Buffy and an akita named Yume; he reportedly turned down the Japanese government’s offer last year of a “bridegroom” for Yume.
Cradling his acquisition and giving it a kiss on its head, he named it Verny (“faithful” in Russian).
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Not only the name was considered ripe for analysis.The Times quoted a commentator on Moscow’s Kommersant FM radio station who interpreted the whole affair as a veiled threat.
In Putin’s gentle receipt of poor Faithful, the analyst said, was a message to Russian voters ahead of elections in March: “Make the right choice and you will receive fatherly care.
After all, we could do it differently, like in Turkmenistan: grab you by the scruff of the neck and give a good shaking.”
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