Turkmen General Nazar Atagarayev has just marked his first year at the helm of the ministry of national security, the MNB. Like the rest of the country's security apparatus, the ministry, whose scope includes intelligence, remains under Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov's thumb. The ex-president currently chairs the former upper house of parliament, the Halk Maslahaty - which has since returned to a unicameral structure and is now the supreme body of power in Turkmenistan - after handing the presidential