Many Turkmen students studying abroad are having to return home because their parents have been forbidden to buy convertible currency at reasonable rates in order to finance their studies, centrasia.ru reported on 8 April. This outcome was expected when President Saparmurat Niyazov signed a decree in February prohibiting the purchase of foreign currency at subsidized rates to finance private study abroad. The report quotes observers inside Turkmenistan who said the move was motivated less by economic considerations than by Niyazov\'s desire to further isolate the country from the outside world. An unnamed source was quoted as saying that Niyazov told the Council of Ministers meeting at which he announced the measure that there is no reason to help students studying abroad privately, because they had lost their national spirit and there was no telling what they would be like when they returned. (RFE/RL)