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Hackers attack Kazakh websites

ALMATY, JAN. 30 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hackers attacked 21 Kazakh government websites, the ministry of information said, raising concerns over the state’s cyber security.

The sites were attacked on Jan. 28. The ministry blamed the servers that hosted the websites but IT expert said the vulnerability of government websites was a well-known problem.

In a press statement, the Kazakh information ministry said: “These [hacking] cases happened because of an absence of control from the owners of internet resources who did not update the systems in time, proper protection, identification of the incident and signing a contract with unreliable clients.”

Arman Abdrasilov, a Kazakh cyber security expert, said that the hacking had been far wider than just the government websites. He said that, in total, 323 websites had been attacked.

He told The Conway Bulletin that government websites are regularly attacked but that the government covers the hacks.

“Twenty-one sites at once. It says that this is a systematic mistake and links back to the government’s attitude in general. We’ve been raising the [vulnerability] questions for at least three years,” Mr Abdrasilov said.

“Security of the whole system is equal to the security of its weakest part.”

The next day (Jan.31), Nazarbayev talked about cyber security threats in his annual state-of-the-nation address. He ordered security services to boost their various defences.

The hacked websites included the north Kazakhstan regional government website and the natural resources department in the Almaty city government.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Council of Europe investigates alleged bribery by Azerbaijan

JAN. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) ordered an investigation into possible bribing of its officials by Azerbaijan.

The allegations focus on Luce Volonte, an Italian former leader of the European People’s Party. Anti- corruption activists have accused him of taking up to 2.4m euros between 2012 and 2014 for setting up a bloc within PACE to boost Azerbaijan’s reputation and dampen attempts to sanction its crackdown on human rights.

Mr Volonte, who is currently being investigated in Italy, has denied the allegations.

In a statement, PACE said that the allegations had damaged its reputation and that it had to act.

“Whether they prove to be founded or false, such allegations undermine the Assembly’s image and credibility as an institution and, in turn, the reputation of each and every one of its members,” it said in a statement.

PACE is one of Europe’s most high profile anti-corruption and pro- democracy bodies.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Qatar to increase flights to Azerbaijan

JAN. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a press conference with his Qatari counterpart, Azerbaijani foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov said that the Qatar airline had agreed to increase the number of flights to Baku. He said that the driving motivator of the planned flight increase was a jump in the number of tourists travelling to Azerbaijan. Mr Mammadyarov didn’t give any figures to back this up or say how many Qatar flights would now operate to Baku. International airlines have been increasing their flights to the South Caucasus.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Georgia sends soldiers to support EU mission in Africa

JAN. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia sent a platoon of 30 soldiers to serve under a France-lead European Union mission in the Central African Republic. The Georgians’ main mission is to defend the EU mission’s base. This is the first deployment of Georgian soldiers to the Central African Republic for two years. Georgia uses its military as an extension of its foreign policy and has sent military support to missions linked to the EU and NATO, two Western institutions that it wants to join.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Kazakh bank says KKB needs to shed bad assets

JAN. 30 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Halyk Bank CEO Umut Shayakhmetova told the Forbes Kazakhstan website that for talks on a merger with Kazkommertsbank to continue, Kazkommertsbank needed to deal with a pile of bad debt it had acquired after taking over BTA Bank in 2014/15. A deal between Halyk Bank, which is owned by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s son-in-law and daughter, would create a banking giant in Kazakhstan that will dominate the banking sector.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Kazakh central banker wants to support banks

FEB. 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Central Bank chief Daniyer Akishev said that he wanted to use state funds to prop up big banks that are listing under the pressure of an economic downturn linked to a drop in oil and gas prices and a recession in Russia. He told a government meeting that the Central Bank was going to evaluate the quality of the banks’ assets later this year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Flights to resume between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan

FEB. 1 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Somon Air, Tajikistan’s national airline, has scheduled a first Tajikistan-Uzbekistan flight since 1992 for Feb. 10, media reported. Regular flights are expected to start up between Dushanbe and Tashkent on Feb. 20. These flights are important as they signify a sea- change in relations between Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, who have quarrelled for years, since the death in September of Uzbekistan’s president Islam Karimov.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Kazakh president makes speech

JAN. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev made his second televised address to the nation in less than a week in which he promised to improve the country’s economy. The speech was short on detail and instead sounded like a to- do list. It had been billed as a follow- up to a speech last week in which Mr Nazarbayev said that he wanted to increase democratic reforms in Kazakhstan. He did talk about strengthening cyber security and adopting a new subsoil law.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Uzbek president pledges to invest $2.6b developing the Aral Sea region

JAN. 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev ordered his government to spend $2.6b developing the area around the Aral Sea, a major investment in a region that was decimated by one of the Soviet Union’s most notorious economic development policies.

Reporting on the decree, RFE/RL said that that the investment would create new jobs and homes as well as improve sanitation and medical service.

The Aral Sea was once the world’s fourth largest inland water but in the 1960s, the Soviets diverted water from the great Syr Darya and Amu Darya rivers that flow from the Pamir mountains into the Aral Sea, toirrigate their cotton fields. The Aral Sea was, literally starved of water. Since then the Aral Sea has lost 90% of its water and become a watchword for man-made environmental disasters.

The eye-catching initiative to regenerate the region comes at a time when Mr Mirziyoyev is trying to set himself apart from his predecessor, Islam Karimov, who died in September. He has ordered officials to repair damaged relations with neighbours and also boosted domestic investment.

Although light on detail, the plan will give Karakalpakstan, the most western and poorest region in Uzbekistan, a boost.

And it needs it. Karakalpakstan’s main city is Nukus, a former secret city built by the Soviets to house workers for their chemical weapons plants. Moynaq, 120km north through the desert, was the main city on the Uzbek side of the Aral Sea. It used to house various industries, including a plant that canned fish for export across the Soviet Union. That plant and the rest of the town now lies rotting and rusting having been abandoned in the 1980s.

Eeking out a living in Moynaq is difficult. One of its main revenue earners now is from tourists travelling from Nukus to walk around and photograph the rusting fishing fleet now marooned 60km from the Aral Sea. It is described as a ships’ graveyard.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)

Tajik officials investigate former Dushanbe mayor for corruption

JAN. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Anti-corruption officials in Tajikistan opened an investigation into the former mayor of Dushanbe Mahmadsaid Ubaidulloev, RFE/RL reported. He was sacked earlier this month. The sacking and investigation, which focuses on a new housing scheme, of Mr Ubaidulloev may signal the start of a power struggle within the Tajik elite. Mr Ubaidulloev had been considered an arch loyalist. Anti- corruption campaigners have said that Tajikistan is one of the most corrupt countries in the world.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 315, published on Feb. 3 2017)f