NOV. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan is drafting legislation that will limit foreign funding to non-governmental organisations (NGOs), media reported. The laws are similar to those being passed by Kyrgyzstan and those already in place in Russia. NGOs say the laws will give the government far greater control over the NGO sector.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
NOV. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Seemingly trying to rile the West, Russian President Vladimir Putin signed an enhanced military and strategic partnership with Abkhazia, one of Georgia’s two breakaway regions.
NATO immediately accused Russia of trying to annex the region which only Russia and a handful of its allies have recognised as independent.
Under the deal, Russia will defend Abkhazia’s borders and strengthen its military partnerships as well as give Abkhazia around $110m.
According to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the new de facto Abkhazian president Raul Khajimba said the deal recognised “equal relations between two sovereign states”.
As well as various economic and military deals, Russia has around 4,000 soldiers stationed in Abkhazia.
Western countries suspect that Russia only encourages Abkhazia and South Ossetia to seek independence from Georgia to act as an irritation to Tbilisi. They also suspect that the Kremlin may have similar ideas for eastern Ukraine which is in the middle of a civil war, focused around Donetsk.
Russia and Georgia fought a brief war over South Ossetia in 2008. Relations are only normalising now.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
NOV. 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek President Islam Karimov made a rare trip to Astana where he met Kazakh leader Nursultan Nazarbayev to discuss plans by Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan to build extra hydropower capacity, an issue that has threatened to destabilise the region. Uzbekistan relies on water from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan to feed its important cotton fields.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
NOV. 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The OSCE, Europe’s election monitoring watchdog, said it will send a limited observation mission to Uzbekistan’s parliamentary elections on Dec. 21. The OSCE has never judged an election in Uzbekistan to be free and fair and has said it is pointless sending a larger team to the vote.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
NOV. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan, which has virtually zero history of polar exploration, signed up to the Antarctic Treaty, an international agreement to defend the neutrality of the region.
Kazakhstan had shown some interest in the Antarctic region in the past, with private expeditions. In 2011 a Kazakh expedition drove to the South Pole where it planted the national flag on the 20th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union.
Since then the government has unveiled plans to establish a Kazakh Antarctic station for research and possibly business purposes.
It’s likely that Kazakhstan wants to increase its international profile by signing up to the Antarctic Treaty.
Luca Anceschi, professor of Central Asian Security at the University of Glasgow, said: “This decision is in line with the government’s policy to increase and improve Kazakhstan’s visibility in the international arena.”
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
NOV. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s lower house of parliament passed a law that ratified deeper economic cooperation with Kyrgyzstan, part of the process towards Kyrgyz accession into the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU). The deal will mean a $1b windfall in cash and loans from Russia to Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
NOV. 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A new railway running from Kazakhstan, through Turkmenistan to Iran will open on Dec. 3, Iran’s minister for urban development, Abbas Akhoundi, said. The route is an important part of a new north-south Silk Road. Turkmenistan wants to encourage trade across its territories.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
NOV. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An outdated version of the Kazakh national anthem was played at a medals ceremony at the Women’s World Amateur Boxing Championships in South Korea, media reported. Kazakhstan is sensitive about national anthem mix-ups after errors that included a spoof anthem and the old Soviet anthem.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
NOV. 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan and the Gulf state of Kuwait are growing closer, as a recent bilateral agreement allowing visa-free travel for state officials showed.
Diplomatic delegations have been shuffling back and forth between the two countries ever since Tajikistan’s embassy in Kuwait opened in 2013.
Kuwait wants to import fresh water from Tajikistan; Tajikistan wants Kuwait’s oil, although how the logistics of that swap would work is unclear.
Currently bilateral trade is weak, registering just over $30,000 for the first ten months of this year. But a visit by Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon last year earned a promise of Kuwaiti investment in construction as well as the reconstruction of facilities in Tajikistan’s critical hydro and tourism sectors.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
NOV. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s economy is overly dependent on oil revenues, making it vulnerable to fluctuations in energy prices, the IMF said. The warning is particularly pertinent now as oil prices have fallen around 40% over the last few months.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
