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Tajik opposition leader killed in Istanbul

MARCH 5 2015 (The Bulletin) – Umarali Kuvatov, leader of the banned Tajik opposition Group 24, was shot dead in Istanbul after leaving a dinner which his family later said had also been poisoned.

Opposition groups immediately accused Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon and his associates of being linked in the murder. He has not commented.

Turkish police later detained three Tajik nationals in connection with the murder.
A successful businessman, Kuvatov had once been an ally of President Rakhmon. He fled Tajikistan in 2012. Last year, the authorities in Tajikistan banned Group 24 from holding an anti-government rally and also accused it of trying to stage a coup. Its activists in Tajikistan have been arrested and jailed.

Facts around Kuvatov’s murder are murky but he is thought to have died from a single gunshot to the head after leaving a dinner at the home of another Tajik. His family said they had also been poisoned at the dinner.

Kuvatov’s murder comes only a few days after the murder of Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov in Moscow. Unlike Nemtsov, though, Kuvatov was considered far more of a fringe player in Tajik opposition circles.

Even so, for Tajikistan’s opposition, the murder rids it of a characteristic and wealthy figure to challenge President Rakhmon and his iron-like grip on power.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Turkmen gas production rises

MARCH 11 2015 (The Bulletin) – Gas production in Turkmenistan, critical for the country’s economic welfare, jumped by 5.2% during the first two months of the year, media reported quoting the Turkmen energy ministry. Turkmenistan has the fourth largest gas reserves in the world. Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has said that he wants to boost gas production to offset the impact of a growing financial crisis.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Russia starts war games in S.Ossetia

MARCH 6 2015 (The Bulletin) – Russia started military exercises in the Georgian breakaway regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, a show of force that Georgia’s government said was provocative. The Kremlin earlier this year signed a military pact with Abkhazia that also ratcheted up tension in the region.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Uzbekistan and UAE sign $120m deal

MARCH 5 2015 (The Bulletin) – Uzbekistan has signed an investment deal with the United Arab Emirates worth a reported $120m, media said. The deals, reports said, would focus on joint investment projects. Uzbekistan has been looking to tap into the Gulf States for investment.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Kyrgyzstan wants to attract skiers

MARCH 10 2015 (The Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan wants to attract more tourists to its ski resorts, media quoted the deputy tourism minister Aynura Temirbekova as saying. She said that Kyrgyzstan’s relaxation of its visa regime had already given it a boost. Tourism is a sector that western businesses have said Kyrgyzstan could better exploit.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Leading Uzbek cleric dies

MARCH 10 2015 (The Bulletin) – Muhammad-Sodiq Muhammad-Yusuf, Uzbekistan’s most prominent Islamic scholar, died aged 63. Reports said he died while playing basketball in Tashkent. Muhammad-Sodiq was influential because he was Uzbekistan’s first post-independence religious leader.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Azerbaijan wants EU to speed up gas deal approval

MARCH 11 2015 (The Bulletin) – Azerbaijani officials have asked their EU counterparts to speed up the authorisation of Azerbaijan’s purchase in 2013 of a 66% stake in DESFA, Greece’s gas pipeline network, for $423m. The European Commission is investigating the potential takeover for any breeches of competition rules.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Pakistan leader to fly to Azerbaijan

MARCH 11 2015 (The Bulletin) – Pakistan’s President Mamnoon Hussain was due to fly into Baku for talks with Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev. Media said that several bilateral deals would be signed. Pakistan is looking for extra energy resources and views Central Asia and the South Caucasus as potential suppliers.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Japan gives buses to Tbilisi

MARCH 10 2015 (The Bulletin) – Japan has made a grant of about $4.2m available to the Tbilisi city government to purchase electric buses, media reported. The deal is important because it shows Japan’s continued interested in developing links with the region and Tbilisi’s drive to update its public transport system.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)

Kazakh court jails border guard chief

MARCH 6 2015 (The Bulletin) – A military court in Kazakhstan sentenced Nurlan Zholamanov, the former head of Kazakhstan’s border forces, to 11 years in prison for corruption. Zholamanov’s imprisonment is one of the biggest cases in the government’s high-profile anti-corruption drive.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 222, published on March 11 2015)