SEPT. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – SOCAR, the Azerbaijani state oil and gas company, said in the first 8 months of 2015 it shipped 930,671 tonnes of oil to Russia, up from 677,785 tonnes during the same period in 2014. Azerbaijan- Russia relations have improved over the past year as Azerbaijan’s relations with the West have faltered.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 8 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — More than a quarter of Kyrgyz citizens eligible to vote in next month’s parliamentary election have not submitted their biometric data to the authorities ahead of a Sept. 19 deadline, the State Registration Service said.
Under new election rules, if people fail to submit their personal biometric data before the deadline their right to vote will be withdrawn, drawing criticism from human rights defenders who have said this is a breach of civil liberties. They also said government agencies were not competent enough to protect the data.
The State Registration Service said it still hadn’t receive data from 1,072,080 people of the 3,777,500 electorate. The data people need to submit includes an electronic signature, photos and fingerprints.
In central Bishkek, a 22-year-old man explained why he had not to submit his data.
“Our people love freedom. I don’t want to be controlled by the state,” he said, without giving his name,
The risk for the government is that if a quarter of the electorate chooses not to register for the Oct. 4 vote, it will fail to deliver a genuine mandate.
Rita Karasartova, head of Institute of Public Analysis, a Kyrgyz NGO, told local media she thought many people were unaware that the deadline to submit biometric data was two weeks ahead of the election itself.
“Citizens will start submitting biometrics at the eve of the elections because they will not be aware of this deadline,” she said, warning this may trigger complaints about voters’
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to Tehran, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev said he wanted Iran to join the Russia and China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Mr Atambayev held meetings with his Iranian counter-part Hassan Rouhani to persuade Iran, which is set to become a major regional partner once Western sanctions are removed, to invest in infrastructure projects in Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian PM Hovik Abrahamyan wants to allow citizens of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) to travel to Armenia without a passport, media reported. He said only 20% of Russians have passports, a major drag on potential tourist numbers, and suggested that they could travel to Armenia on internal passports.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Toronto-listed Centerra Gold, owner of the Kumtor gold mine in east Kyrgyzstan, has paid 4.3 trillion som (around $65m) in taxes to the Kyrgyz government in the first 8 months of 2015, the ministry of finance said. In 2014, Centerra accounted for 7.4% of Kyrgyzstan’s GDP.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A bomb exploded near a mosque in central Tashkent. Nobody was hurt in the explosion. Police said they are looking for two people who left the bomb in a bag at a bus stop.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has approved a bill that will increase customs duties on sausages, fruit, vegetable, softs drinks and fruit juice and come into force on Oct. 1. Mr Berdymukhamedov has said he wants a policy of import substitution.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 11 2015, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed his daughter, Dariga Nazarbayeva, to be a deputy PM, triggering an avalanche of speculation that she was being lined up to succeed him.
The appointment caps a remarkable turnaround for Ms Nazarbayeva who in 2007 fell out with her father and was forced to relinquish her seat in parliament and her media business interests.
Analysts said that her appointment as deputy PM was significant.
“It does look like a sign of succession,” Nargis Kassenova, professor of International Relations at KIMEP University in Almaty.
“Now with no danger of Rakhat Aliyev coming back, there seems to be no serious constraint to keep her away from top executive positions.”
Ms Nazarbayeva had been married to Rakhat Aliyev who fled into exile in 2007 and set himself up in opposition to President Nazarbayev. He was later arrested and charged in Vienna with murdering two Kazakh bankers outside Almaty.
Mr Nazarbayev had wanted him extradited but this year, the day before he was to stand trial, Aliyev was found hanged in his prison cell.
The succession issue for President Nazarbayev has become one of his most pressing. The 75-year-old, who has ruled over Kazakhstan since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, has not yet named a successor, which has allowed rumours to swirl and instability to take root.
Ms Kassenova, the KIMEP professor, said that Ms Nazarbayeva’s promotion may already have been trailed when President Nazarbayev earlier this month spoke about the Asian model of democracy.
“This dynastic approach to power is probably what President Nazarbayev had in mind when he recently referred to our Asian traditions to explain a slow move to Western-style democracy,” she said.
Ms Nazarbayeva returned to parliament in the 2012 election and has since held the position of deputy speaker of parliament.
There are other potential rivals for power. These include PM Karim Massimov, defence minister Imangali Tasmagambetov and Timur Kulibayev, the former head of Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund and the husband of Mr Nazarbayev’s second daughter.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police arrested the governor of the Kostanai region in north Kazakhstan, Akhmetbek Akhmetzhanov, for corruption. Kazakh officials have arrested a handful of senior regional officials over the past year or so for corruption.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 11 2015, YEREVAN (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian gas monopoly Gazprom agreed to cut the price of gas it sells to Armenia by 12%, giving the Armenian government much needed economic breathing space.
The economic turmoil blowing through the former Soviet region has hit Armenia hard. Its dram currency has lost around 20% of its value and its economy is stalling.
Inflation is also rising and protesters have become increasingly agitated about utility price increases. Earlier this year, thousands of people demonstrated against proposed electricity price rises, eventually forcing the government into a climb-down.
Now Gazprom, which owns 100% of Armenia’s gas network, appears to have taken pity on Armenia.
Shushan Sardaryan, a spokeswoman for Gazprom Armenia, said that the new price was set at $165, down from $189, for 1,000 cubic metres of gas.
“The current price of natural gas was based on an exchange rate of $1 equalling 416 Armenian drams,” she told reporters. “But the exchange rate significantly differs from this level and the fluctuations damaged the company.”
The dram is now hovering at around 480 against the US dollar.
Ms Sardaryan also made the point that although Russia had reduced the cost of its gas to Armenia, this price reduction would not be passed on to consumers.
Instead, the saving would be made by the government. Armenia has also floated the idea of pricing its gas in roubles, rather than US dollars, a move which would, in theory, protect it from price rises linked to the devaluation of its dram currency.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
