Two years after abolishing the position of head of the Presidential Administration (also referred to in media reports as the chief of staff), Uzbekistan’s President Shavkat Mirziyoyev has re-established the post, and placed his eldest daughter into the role.
Presidential Press Secretary Sherzod Asadov announced that the president had signed a decree (re)introducing the head of the Presidential Administration post and appointing Saida Mirziyoyeva to the role. (The text of the decree is not yet available on the presidential website.)
Asadov shared a photo in which Mirziyoyeva stands, apparently accepting the position, as officials around a table clap. She is the only woman in the photograph.
Mirziyoyeva has been serving as first assistant to the president — the highest position in the administration behind the president once the chief of staff role was nixed. Uzbekistan’s government does not have a vice president role. With the change, Mirziyoyeva retains her top position in the Uzbek government that her father has headed since 2016.
Additional media reports noted that Komil Allamjonov — shown seated beside Mirziyoyeva in the photo Asadov shared — had been appointed her independent advisor. Gazeta.uz reported that Allamjonov “will consult the head of the administration on an unpaid basis on issues like development of innovative economy, attraction of investments, ensuring freedom of the speech, and support of the independent media.”
While Mirziyoyeva’s appointment as head of the Presidential Administration reflects continuity, as the role isn’t all that different than the one she has occupied since 2023, Allamjonov’s mention marks his return to the tight circle of the Uzbek government.
Allamjonov abruptly left his post as head of Presidential Administration’s information policy department in September 2024; a month later, he was the target of an assassination attempt. Soon after, a number of security officials resigned or were fired, with various sources suggesting that Allamjonov had been targeted as part of a feud with Otabek Umarov, the president’s son-in-law, married to his youngest daughter, Shakhnoza. Umarov, who had been deputy head of the Uzbek presidential security service, was reportedly removed from that post. The shakeup in the security services continued into 2025.
Reporting by The Diplomat earlier this year outlined an apparent conspiracy to “destroy” Allamjonov, and another Uzbek government official, via a convoluted scheme to manipulate the U.S. sanctions system into targeting them. A key figure in that story, businessman Ulugbek Shadmanov, was extradited from the UAE to Uzbekistan in January. A source told The Diplomat at that time that a shadowy deep-state organization referred to as “the office” was behind both the effort to smear Allamjonov and the assassination attempt. The source stated unequivocally that Umarov was behind “the office.”
As I wrote at the time, citing reporting from RFE/RL’s Uzbek Service, Ozodlik, “Like Ozodlik, The Diplomat does not have any documents that directly link Umarov or Shadmanov to ‘the office,’ or that prove its existence. But that’s the problem with conspiracies: there aren’t typically documents neatly laying out the details of the scheme.”
In February 2025, 10 people were sentenced by a military court for organizing the assassination attempt, some receiving terms up to 23 years. Reports about the verdict did not mention a motive.
Reading between the lines is the only way to perceive the political competition playing out in Uzbekistan, because it takes place in elite circles and behind the curtain of government. Mirziyoyev cementing his daughter’s high position, and Allamjonov’s return to government — albeit in an unpaid advisory role — suggest a tilt in the balance that last year’s drama exposed as perhaps tipping too far to one side or spinning out of the president’s control.
