Murat Niyazov
Murat Niyazov (born 18 April 1967) is the son of the late President of Turkmenistan Saparmurat Niyazov and his wife Muza Sokolova. He is of mixed Russian, Turkmen and Jewish descent. Niyazov's father served as General Secretary of the Turkmen SSR from 1985 until 1991 and then President from 1991 until his death in 2006 with the self-bestowed title of Türkmenbaşy (Head of the Turkmen).
Murat Niyazov has persuaded Turkmenistan to avoid any contracts with Bridas in regards to their ideas of building oil pipelines. He convinced the country their only motivation was exploitation. He then turned to the United States asking them to relax their involvement in Iranian oil and focus more on Turkmenistan, but he failed to ever obtain an opportunity to meet with United States leaders, unlike his father.