DEC. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – NATO re-affirmed it is looking to open a training centre in Georgia despite Russian threats. At a press conference, NATO director-general Jens Stoltenberg said: “No other third country can veto or try to stop partnership between NATO and a sovereign nation as Georgia.”
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
NOV. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prosecutors in Georgia charged former president Mikheil Saakashvili with complicity in the murder of banker Sandro Girgvilani in 2006, media reported. Girgliani was killed after a row in a bar with interior ministry officials. Mr Saakashvili is living in self-imposed exile in New York.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
DEC. 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Azerbaijani security forces arrested two men for setting fire to a mosque in a village in Azerbaijan. Media quoted the security forces describing the arson as an act of terrorism. It said that one of the men arrested had fought with Kurdish fighters in Syria.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
DEC. 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz PM Djoomart Otorbayev said the country would sign treaties on Dec. 23 with Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan that effectively amount to an accession agreement to the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union at the start of 2015. Armenia has already signed an accession deal.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
DEC. 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh PM Karim Massimov said Kazakhstan wanted to develop shale gas sites, industry website shaleenergyinsider.com reported. The website quoted Mr Massimov talking at an energy conference. If Mr Massimov acts on his statement it would mark a change in Kazakhstan’s energy policy.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
NOV. 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan held municipal elections on Nov. 23 which, according to a blog post on the US-fund Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website, failed to generate much interest. The blog reported that although official turnout was 92.76%, it was difficult to find people who had voted.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
NOV. 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prices of basic food products are rising in Dushanbe, local media reported, because of a fall in the value of the Tajik somoni. Tajik news agency Asia-Plus reported that a bag of flour now sold at 175 somoni, up from 165 somoni a week earlier, and that vegetable oil cost 44 somoni up from 40 somoni.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
DEC. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Afghanistan’s President Mohammad Ashraf Ghani travelled to Baku for talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev on how the two countries can increase cooperation. Azerbaijan can, potentially, play a large role in shaping post-war Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
DEC. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Halyk Bank, Kazakhstan’s second biggest lender, said profits for the first nine months of the year had risen by around two-thirds, mainly because of an increase in the number of loans it has given out. The results are good news for Kazakhstan’s economy which has been under pressure from falling oil prices.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
DEC. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The OSCE said it does not expect the Uzbek parliamentary election on Dec. 21 to be either free or fair and that it will be sending only a small group to the vote.
In total the OSCE will send 20 observers to cover the election in Uzbekistan, a country with 30m people and 135 electoral districts.
The Uzbek government, though, had a slightly different way of interpreting the OSCE’s perceived snub. It said that the OSCE’s limited observation mission was because there had been large improvements in the process.
“There is a unanimous opinion that no problems are expected,” the Uzbek government said in a statement. The OSCE has never judged an election in post-Soviet Uzbekistan to be either free or fair.
Of course, in a way, the Uzbek government is correct. There are no problems expected in terms of the result.
The Uzbek government made sure that only four pro- president political parties were allowed to run for the 135 seats. The Uzbek Central Election Commission rejected the unofficial Erk opposition party’s registration application.
The importance of these parliamentary elections is not that they will, or even could, trigger a change in how Uzbekistan is run, instead they are an indicator ahead of presidential elections in 2015.
Signals from Uzbekistan have suggested that President Islam Karimov’s position has been weakened by a prolonged power struggle over the past year. If any strong contenders emerge out of the parliamentary elections, even from the pro-presidential parties, it could make for a more dynamic presidential vote.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
