JULY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in the southern Kazakh city of Zhezkazgan sentenced four people to between six and 12 years in prison for trying to recruit young men to fight for Islamic extremists in Syria and Iraq. Central Asian states are increasingly nervous about extremist recruitment drives.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan agreed to jointly investigate a shoot-out along its shared borders earlier this month that killed one person, media reported. The announcement was an important step in deescalating tension along the border. There have been several clashes on the Tajik-Kyrgyz border this year.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prosecutors in Georgia charged former president Mikheil Saakashvili with illegally breaking up an anti-government demonstration in 2007, taking over a television station and expropriating a businessman’s assets.
Mr Saakashvili, who has previously declined to appear in front of a court to face the charges, described them as politically motivated.
Georgian politics is sharply polarised and since the Georgian Dream coalition, led by Georgia’s richest man Bidzina Ivanishvili, came to power in the parliamentary elections in 2012 and the presidential vote in 2013 it has chased and charged Mr Saakashvili’s former associates with various crimes.
Both the EU and the US have criticised the Georgian Dream for persecuting former high-ranking officials but, despite Georgia’s continued pro-Western agenda, they have been unable to stop the charges.
Mr Saakashvili left Georgia last year, after the presidential election, to avoid facing charges which he said would be fabricated and levied against him.
The United States considered Mr Saakashvili a key ally and charges levied against him will irritate them.
“Commitment to the rule of law means both that everyone must comply with the law in a democratic society and that the legal system should not be used as a tool of political retribution,” the US State Department said in a statement.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkey’s foreign minister, Ahmet Davutoglu, visited Tashkent, a hugely symbolic gesture between the two countries. Relations between Uzbekistan and Turkey have been stained over the past few years and Mr Davutoglu was the first Turkish foreign minister to visit Tashkent for 10 years.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) has agreed to loan Tajikistan $50m to modernise a vital power station, media reported. The Qairokkum plant, built in 1958, is the only power generating plant in the north of the country and supplies electricity to 500,000 homes.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – French president Francois Hollande will visit Kazakhstan in the second half of 2014, the Kazakh government said. France has major investments in Kazakhstan and cooperation is growing between the two countries. There is also talk of setting up direct flights to Astana from Paris.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – As announced last month, Kazakhstan dropped visa requirements from 10 countries for people staying less than 15 days. The move is a trial but could be expanded if successful. The countries are the United States, Britain, Germany, France, Italy, the UAE, Malaysia, the Netherlands, S.Korea, and Japan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s oil output has continued to fall in 2014 despite attempts by BP, the country’s biggest foreign investor, to stem the decline. Reuters quoted a source in the Azerbaijani statistics department as saying that output was down 2.8% in the first six months of the year.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s national energy company Barqi Tojik has blamed another massive state-run concern, the aluminium smelter TALCO, for part of its growing $300m debt.
Over a third of Barqi Tojik’s debts are owed to a pair of hydroelectric power facilities, which TALCO officially co-owns with Russia and Iran. Other debts are unpaid taxes to the state, salary arrears, and unpaid loans.
In an interview with Asia-Plus, a Barqi Tojik official said TALCO owed the company $50 million in unpaid energy bills. TALCO, which as reported is itself suffering from a major slump in demand for its products, has denied the allegations.
Barqi Tojik and TALCO are two of Tajikistan’s most significant state-owned companies and both appear to be in trouble.
Barqi Tojik’s debts have grown as public sector clients like TALCO (which alone consumes at least a sixth of national energy production) and other major industrial facilities renege on payments. TALCO reportedly haemorrhaged $40m last year and laid off a fifth of its workforce. The company has suffered from low prices for aluminium and alleged corruption within the political elite. Tajikistan’s economy looks increasing fragile.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Uzbekistan has annulled a takeover of cement producer Akhangarancement by Russia’s Eurocement in 2006, paving the way for the state to renationalise it. The ruling is a blow for foreign businesses in Uzbekistan and underlines their suspicion of the Uzbek government.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
