Career
He is of mixed Russian, Turkmen and Jewish descent. Niyazov"s father served as General Secretary of the Turkmen Soviet Socialist Republic from 1985 until 1991 and then President from 1991 until his death in 2006. 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.