Aral: The Perfect Murder, October 11, 2021
Using specialized equipment, journalists will analyze water samples from the Aral Sea taken in different years, calculate the safest water intake for the sea from the Amu Darya and Syr Darya rivers, and extract gunpowder from a cotton boll.
In just one generation, the Aral Sea has become the Aralkum Desert. Today, scientists call it the greatest environmental disaster of the 20th century, bringing illness and death to people.
What caused the Aral Sea's destruction—natural disasters or human activity? Is it possible that this unique body of water was deliberately destroyed? And for what purpose? Is this event connected to the high-profile "cotton case" of the 1980s, which involved large-scale corruption in Uzbekistan? And why was all material on this topic classified for decades?