Karimov in intensive care

ALMATY: Authoritarian Uzbek leader Islam Karimov, whose Central Asian country is a stage for strategic rivalry between Russia, China and the West, is in stable condition in an intensive care ward after suffering a brain haemorrhage on Saturday, his daughter said.

President Karimov, 78, who has run Uzbekistan since it was a Soviet republic and wields sweeping powers, has no obvious successor, a situation characteristic of the volatile Central Asia region which is still largely run by former Communist apparatchiks.

The absence of a strong political opposition or free media means any eventual transition of power is likely to be decided within a close circle of Karimov’s family and top officials.

"At the moment, it is too early to make any forecasts about his condition in the future," his daughter Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva wrote on her Instagram page on Monday.