HE HAS already renamed months of the year after himself and his mother, banned car radios, opera and ballet and been declared President for Life.

Now Turkmenistan’s eccentric leader, Saparmurat Niyazov, has banned the playing of recorded music during national holidays, on television and even at private weddings.

Mr Niyazov — also known as Turkmenbashi (Father of the Turkmen) the Great — issued the ban to protect traditional musicians from “negative influences” such as performers who lip-synch, according to state media.

State television showed him telling his Cabinet: “Unfortunately, one can see on television old voiceless singers lip-synching their old songs. Don’t kill talents by using lip-synching . . . create our new culture.”

Turkmen singers and composers were shown unanimously approving the move and thanking the President for his “parental care” at a meeting in the capital, Ashgabat.

One singer, identified as M. Bayramgeldiyev, said: “It is impossible to express one’s deep love of the homeland, people and native land when there is a sound recording instead of live voice and live sound.”

But critics said that the ban was the latest sign of President Niyazov’s increasingly arbitrary and authoritarian rule, and said it could herald a wave of repression.

“It’s a ludicrous statement for a head of state, but it’s not unusual for Turkmenistan. This is typical of the arbitrary rule and micromanagement of President Niyazov,” Erika Dailey, the head of the Turkmenistan Project at the Open Society Institute, said.

Mr Niyazov has led his former Soviet republic, a largely desert nation with the world’s fifth-largest natural gas reserves, since becoming the local Communist Party chief in 1985. Elected President after the Soviet collapse, he has clung to power by banning all political opposition, maintaining tight control over gas revenues and fostering an often bizarre personality cult.

The country of 4.8 million people is littered with his portraits and statues, including a giant gold effigy in Ashgabat that rotates to face the sun.

In 2001 he published a moral and spiritual guide called the Ruhnama, which is studied in all schools and universities, displayed with the Koran in mosques and is required reading to pass a driving test. The second part of the Ruhnama was published last year.

Mr Niyazov appears to believe that he has a divine mission to create a golden age of Turkmen culture, analysts say. But his policies have turned a potentially rich country into one of the world’s poorest, with more than half of its population living below the poverty line and 60 per cent jobless.

He also regularly purges his Government of its most capable officials to get rid of potential rivals. He dismissed Amangeldy Rejepov, the Minister of Construction, this month for “serious shortcomings”. He also dismissed the head of the Central Bank in June for allegedly embezzling $188 million (£105 million).

“He likes to jail people who are close to him because they know all the bad things he has done,” said Khudairberdy Orazov, a former Turkmen banker who leads an opposition group in exile.

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