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| - Turkmenistan's strongman Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov handed his son three powerful positions in a government shakeup Thursday, state media said, strengthening the view that the 39-year-old is being groomed for succession. Serdar Berdymukhamedov took up a seat in the security council, became the country's auditor general and was elevated from a regular ministerial role to deputy chair of the cabinet, a commentator on state television said Tuesday night. Although there were nine other deputy chairs of the cabinet at the time of Serdar Berdymukhamedov's appointment, Berdymukhamedov junior's position will have "a controlling function", overseeing a new "department of control" inside the cabinet, the commentator said. His cabinet brief will see him responsible for "digitalisation and the introduction of new innovative technologies into the public administration system, the financial and economic sector and the social sphere," added the commentator. Prior to the shakeup, Serdar Berdymukhamedov was the country's industry and construction minister. He has also been a provincial governor, a lawmaker and a foreign ministry official in the past. Gurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has ruled Turkmenistan without opposition since 2006 and the death of the country's first post-independence ruler Saparmurat Niyazov. Both Berdymukhamedov and Niyazov are feted with golden statues in the white marble-clad capital Ashgabat, a city of a million people. al-cr/pvh
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