MAY 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Businessman from the UAE and Kazakhstan signed an agreement to set up a forum to develop ties and deals between the countries. The Atameken group that signed the deal on the Kazakh side is a quasi-government business group. Kazakhstan has said that it has aspirations to start exporting Halal meat to nearby Arab countries.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
MAY 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Italy-based bus maker Iveco shipped 210 buses to Astana, part of a programme to upgrade the city’s fleet ahead of EXPO-2017. Iveco said that the new buses will join 358 Iveco buses already operating in Astana. The buses are manufactured at a factory in France and partly re-assembled at a plant in Kostanay, north Kazakhstan. EXPO- 2017 is giving the Kazakh economy a boost.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
ALMATY, MAY 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Civil rights activists and opposition journalists in Kazakhstan blamed the authorities for pressuring human rights campaigner Olesya Khalabuzar into quitting an anti- government party she established a few years ago.
Known for her forthright statements, Ms Khalabuzar had been viewed as something of a superstar in Kazakhstan’s small activist scene. She was head of the Justice party that she set up in 2015.
“She’s been pressurised by the authorities,” said one journalist in Almaty who asked to remain anonymous. “The anti-government space is getting smaller and smaller here. This is just another instance of the state pressuring an activist to give up their work.”
Rights campaigners have said that the authorities have taken an increasingly tough line on dissenters, cracking down on people who challenge the authorities.
On May 17, in a surprise announcement, Ms Khalabuzar wrote on Facebook that she had decided to give up politics.
“Probably, people will think that I am giving up because of a criminal case against me this is not the case – these people do not understand my situation,” she wrote. “I am leaving public activity. I want to become an ‘ordinary citizen’ and devote the remaining time to my family. This is the most sacred thing.”
In her post she also said that she regretted some of her actions which she described as “counterproductive” and “short-sighted”.
This year, police have detained Ms Khalabuzar for involvement in what they described as an illegal protest. They have also searched her office and she has been the subject of a civil complaint.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
MAY 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia became the first country in the former Soviet Union to ratify the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention aimed at increasing punishment for domestic violence, media reported. The Convention increases police powers and sets up a series of 24-hour telephone lines to report domestic violence.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
TBILISI, MAY 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Three former executives of the Ras Al Khaimah Investment Authority (RAKIA), which used to own Poti Port in Georgia, were given prison sentences in Ras Al Khaimah, part of the UAE, for corruption.
Former RAKIA CEO Khater Massaad and Gela Mikadze and George Janashia, who also used to work for RAKIA in Georgia, were found guilty in absentia of fraud by a judge over a scam they concocted in 2010/11. They persuaded Poti Port, then 100% owned by RAKIA, to enter a joint-venture with the previously unknown Raystar Trade LLP.
The judge said that Mikadze and Janashia were the owners of Raystar and that as soon as a payment was made to it by Poti Port the company was closed down, effectively allowing the three men to steal $17.2m.
Media said that Massaad is currently in Jeddah, where he has been arrested, and is waiting extradition. Mikadze is reportedly in Switzerland and Janashia is allegedly in Georgia. It is not clear if they have also been arrested.
In 2011, RAKIA sold its stake in Poti Port. Poti Port, on the Black Sea, is considered an important strategic site by the government.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
MAY 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — UAE’s Mubadala Development Company and Kazakhstan’s United Chemical Company agreed to develop a chemical complex in the west of Kazakhstan that will produce 800,000 tonnes of polyethylene each year. Kazakh deputy energy minister Magzum Mirzagaliyev told the media that the plant is planned for the western Atyrau region. Kazakhstan and the UAE have been developing bilateral ties. Polyethylene is the plastic, primarily used to produce plastic bags and plastic bottles.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
MAY 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Amnesty International accused the Tajik government of cracking down on civil rights activists and people critical of the government. The accusation came a week after human rights lawyer, Fayzinisso Vohidova, was prevented from leaving the country.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
MAY 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — After years of delay and prevarications, a consortium of Chinese companies will begin construction of the Astana Light Railway at the end of this month. The $1.8b light railway system, it is planned, will link the airport with various sites in the new sector of Astana including the planned Astana International Finance Centre, the government sector and the new railway station. According to the Astana Times, the network will have 18 stations and a capacity of 150,000 people.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
MAY 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in St Petersburg sentenced two ethnic Tajiks to prison for recruiting people for the extremist IS group. One of the men was given a 6-1/2 year sentence; the other a sentence of 6 years. Russia and countries in Central Asia have said that much of the alleged radicalisation of young Central Asians occurs in Russia where they work as labourers, removed from their family unit.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
MAY 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan Central Bank banned Delta Bank, the 14th biggest bank in the country, from opening up any new customer accounts until mid- June because it had missed a series of payment deadlines. Kazakhstan’s banking sector has been under increased pressure because of an economic downturn linked to a drop in oil prices and a recession in Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 330, published on May 28 2017)
