Author Archives: admin

Tajikistan tightens advertising ban

JUNE 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik authorities have said they would fine shop-owners in Dushanbe for violating a law that bans outdoor advertising, theAsia Plus news agency reported. The authorities claim that the law, in force since 2007, also applies to storefronts, not just billboards. Shop-owners will have to take down their signs or risk a fine up to 20,000 somoni ($2,500).

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Inter-RAO sells its Georgian stake

JUNE 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s state-owned power distribution company Inter RAO said the sale of its 100% stake in the Georgian company Mtkvari Energy will generate a positive return for shareholders. Inter RAO representatives told media that the total amount of the sale cannot be disclosed for a few months, but that it “greatly exceeds” the value of the assets. Inter RAO completed the sale of Mtkvari Energy to unnamed international investors on June 2. Mtkvari Energy operates a thermal power plant outside Tbilisi. A recession in Russia and opposition to electricity price increases across the South Caucasus has persuaded Inter RAO to sell assets in Georgia and Armenia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Georgia’s C.Bank cuts rates

JUNE 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Central Bank cut its key interest rate by half a percentage point to 7% to combat slowing inflation. In April, the Central Bank cut its key rate for the first time in three years to 7.5% from 8%. The Central Bank has said that it wants to push its interest rate down to around 5% – 6%, described as the country’ neutral rate, after raising it last year to defend its lari currency.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Turkmenistan’s dream pipeline to be ready by 2020

JUNE 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – TAPI, the proposed gas pipeline that will pump gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan and Pakistan to India, will be ready in 2020, Pakistan’s minister of natural resources Shahid Khaqan Abbasi told media. This is yet another official voice pushing back the completion date of the project, originally planned for 2019.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Russia strengthens base in Tajikistan

JUNE 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Russian army ramped up its hardware at its base in Tajikistan by delivering 100 armed personnel carriers and tanks. Russian officials did not say why they were upgrading their military kit in Tajikistan. Russia has previously warned of the threat by the Taliban in Afghanistan. The military base in Tajikistan is Russia’s largest foreign military facility.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Kazakh Tsesnabank completes bank deal

JUNE 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tsesnabank, one of the largest banks in Kazakhstan, completed its takeover of Russian Plus Bank by buying a 14.7% stake from UAE based Linex Global. Tsesnabank, which had bought a controlling stake in Plus Bank in January, now owns 99% of the bank. Adilbek Dzhaksybekov, mayor of Astana, owns Tsesnabank.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

Extremists are increasing, says Kyrgyz police

JUNE 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz police said in a statement that they have identified around 4,000 extremists in the country, more than double the previous census they had published in September 2015. Most of the individuals that the police classified as extremists belong to the banned Hizb ut-Tahrir Islamic party. A word of caution, though. Countries in Central Asia have a record of inflating the number of extremists and terrorists, which they use as a scapegoat to crackdown on opposition.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 285, published on June 17 2016)

EgyptAir bomb threat plane diverts to Uzbekistan

JUNE 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — An EgyptAir passenger plane flying to Beijing from Cairo diverted to Urgench airport in western Uzbekistan after Egyptian authorities received information that a bomb had been planted on the plane. The plane was evacuated and searched before being allowed to fly on to China after the Uzbek authorities gave the all-clear.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Kazakh President’s nephew to invest in car-making

JUNE 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kairat Satybaldy, the eldest nephew of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, and Vyacheslav Kim, both linked to Kaspi Bank, one of Kazakhstan’s most prominent high street banks, bought into AllurGroup, a carmaker with its main operations in Kostanai, in the north of the country. Through Alatau Invest Capital, a financial vehicle, Mr Satybaldy has said he wants to invest in the car-making industry.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)

Kazakh authorities accuse imprisoned businessman of coup attempt

SHYMKENT/Kazakhstan, JUNE 6 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Kazakhstan accused imprisoned Kazakh businessman Tokhtar Tuleshov of stirring protests across the country in April and May in an attempt to overthrow the government.

The protests morphed from a demonstration in Atyrau in the west of the country against proposed land reforms into country-wide demonstrations against the government and the worsening economic scenario.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev has already sacked a couple of ministers over the handling of the land reform issue as well as two senior interior ministry officials but some analysts said that he is still looking to deflect blame for the protests away from his government.

The National Security Committee have now said that Mr Tuleshov, who was arrested in Shymkent in the south of the country, in January on various corruption and gun running charges has been plotting for the past year to overthrow the government.

Quoting a National Security Committee spokesperson, media said that Tuleshov’s “plan included destabilising the situation in the country by creating flash points, organising protests and mass unrest.”

Over the weekend, police also arrested a deputy prosecutor-general and two senior military officers for involvement in the plan.

It’s not clear, though, how Tuleshov would have organised this from prison and other analysts were quick to rubbish the theory.

Rasul Zhumaly, a former Kazakh diplomat and now a political analyst, said that Tuleshov was too well-connected to the establishment to risk attempting a coup.

“He had powerful patrons in Russia and Kazakhstan, even among military representatives, and his activity in pro-Kremlin propaganda,” he said.

“It’s more likely that these official charges are nothing but an attempt to find a fall guy and make him responsible for everything.”

Tuleshov was based in Shymkent near the border with Uzbekistan. He was the representative of a Russia- linked military think tank in Kazakhstan and also the CEO of Shymkentpivo, one of the country’s biggest breweries.

In Shymkent, people said that Tuleshov had been targeted because officials coveted his business.

“Tokhtar had a big profitable busi- ness, his family had everything, so there was no need for him to go against current authorities,” said Galina, 38.

“It seems like his business was very attractive for someone.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 284, published on June 10 2016)