Turkmenistan is currently facing three crises: grain, energy and financial. Turkmenistan traditionally responds to a crisis by quickly clamping down. But with three crises, Ashgabat is going to extremes to prevent domestic destabilization or exploitation by foreign powers. Turkmenistan is highly fragmented, comprising five major regions tenuously held together, and like its neighbors, Turkmenistan's population is composed of regionally dispersed clans. Traditionally, the two largest clans, the Balkan and Mary, do not run the country but lead its three largest industries. The Balkan clan runs Turkmenistan's massive energy trade and the Mary clan supposedly controls the drug and most of the cotton markets in their regions. The third largest clan, the Teke from Ahal province, is mainly in charge of the government. The Balkan and Mary clans do not interfere with the government in exchange for economic prosperity. This arrangement has lasted for most of the past century. However, in a crisis, the government will clamp down so the non-ruling clans cannot rise up and to prevent outside powers such as Russia from using the opposing clans to destabilize the country.
