Category Archives: Central Asia & South Caucasus News

IMF approves loans for Kyrgyzstan and Armenia

JUNE 16/17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The IMF approved two loans to Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, part of a three-year plan to support macroeconomic reforms. It loaned $22m to Armenia, where it supported a controversial tax reform that received a first parliamentary approval on June 15. The IMF also gave a $13m loan to Kyrgyzstan and lauded the government’s measures to boost tax revenues and cut spending.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

EBRD issues lari bond in Georgia

JUNE 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The EBRD said it issued a 107m lari ($50.2m) bond in Georgia, the second lari-denominated public bond issued by the bank. The five-year bond has an initial yield of 6.45% and will be listed on the Georgian Stock Exchange. The EBRD launched its first domestic bond in Georgia in March 2014. The value of the original two-year bond was 50m lari (around $30m at the time).

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Nico Rosberg wins F1 in Azerbaijani capital

JUNE 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – German driver Nico Rosberg won the first F1 Grand Prix in Baku. President Ilham Aliyev wanted to host the Grand Prix to boost the profile of Azerbaijan. His critics, though, accused him of wasting money and hosting an expensive vanity project while Azerbaijan’s economy shrinks.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Tajikistan releases Rahmon rival

JUNE 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Yakub Salimov, former Tajik interiorminister and renowned warlord and smuggler, was released from jail after serving a 13-year sentence for plotting a coup in the 1990s.Mr Salimov, one of President Emomali Rakhmon’s biggest opponents, was charged in 1998 but fled the country. He was finally detained in Russia in 2003 and later extradited to Tajikistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Gazprom agrees Georgia deal

JUNE 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s state-owned energy company Gazprom said it agreed a gas supply deal with a private Georgian distributor, Gasko+, stirring criticism in Georgia’s Parliament. Under the deal, agreed on the sidelines of the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, Gazprom will sell 100m cubic metres/year to Gasko+. Georgian MPs have said that the deal risks circumventing the current intergovernmental agreement that allows Georgia to import 10% of the gas Russia sends to Armenia through its territory.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Chaarat receives extension from Kyrgyz government

JUNE 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – British Virgin Island-registered Chaarat Gold said it received a two- year extension from the Kyrgyz government to present results for a gold mine it is exploring in north-west Kyrgyzstan. Now, Chaarat has to present a detailed development proposal for the mine by the end of 2018. The company completed a feasibility study for the mine, Chaarat’s only asset, in February.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Kazakh champion weightlifter banned from Rio Games after failing drugs test

ALMATY, JUNE 21 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ilya Ilin, a sporting hero in Kazakhstan after winning a weightlifting gold medal at the London Olympics in 2012, has been banned from the Olympics in Rio later this year after more evidence emerged that he had taked performance enhancing drugs.

The new evidence apparently showed that he took the drugs for the Beijing Olympics in 2008. This comes on top of other evidence that showed he took drugs at the London Olympics in 2012.

Three other Kazakh weightlifters — Svetlana Podobedova, Maia Maneza, Zulfiya Chinshanlo — have also been found guilty of doping at the London 2012 Olympics.

Kazakhstan won seven gold medals at the London Olympics, its best ever haul. Four of these medals were in weightlifting.

Mr Ilin has denied the drug-taking charges and instead said a change in how the samples are taken and tested was to blame for an incorrect positive test.

News of his suspension spread across Kazakhstan, shocking and angering people. Kazakh politicians lined up to give him their support.

“Whatever the decision taken on the athlete Ilya Ilin, he has earned our support as a leading sportsman and patriot of Kazakhstan,” said Kassym Jomart-Tokayev, chairman of Kazakhstan’s Senate.

And it was a similar story from ordinary Kazakhs.

Aizhan, a resident of Almaty, said that he had uploaded Ilin’s picture on to his Facebook site as a show of support. He said: “Honestly, I am very upset with this scandal and even more with how it is covered by foreign media. I believe his words.”

Bolat Mukashev, who works in the public sector, said: “I am very upset and support Ilya. The whole country believed in him and now this. Of course there is no smoke without fire but nobody denies that this is a trap.”

For Kazakhstan, the seven gold medals won at the London Olympics were a huge boost to their national pride and self-image. It had been part of the government’s policy to promote Kazakhstan through sport. It recruited weightlifters from China and tennis players and athletes from Russia to boost its cause.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Kyrgyzaltyn changes board composition

JUNE 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz state-owned miner Kyrgyzaltyn said in a note that it had changed the composition of its board. Askar Oskombayev, adviser to the PM, will now serve as chairman, replacing Duishenbek Kamchybekov. Kyrgyzaltyn owns 32% of Canada’s Centerra Gold, which owns and operates the Kumtor gold mine in eastern Kyrgyzstan. Centerra and the government are currently embroiled in a legal battle to resolve disputes over ownership of the gold mine.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Editorial: Nazarbayev’s reshuffle

JUNE 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – When Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev reshuffles his top government officials, it’s time to start thinking about the politics of succession.

The latest reshuffle is an important one. Apart from the PM post, held by Karim Massimov, one of Mr Nazarbayev’s most trusted aides, the head of the presidential administration, the speaker of parliament and mayor of Astana are some of the most important and high-profile posts that he can hand out.

Mr Nazarbayev has promoted the slick, media-savvy Asset Issekeshev to be major of Astana, Adilbek Dzhaksybekov was shifted from that position to head of the presidential administration and Nurlan Nigmatullin, was moved to be speaker of parliament.

All are now guaranteed to play a role inMr Nazarbayev’s plans but perhaps the most eye-catching is the promotion ofMr Issekeshev. He will now be the face of EXPO-2017 in Astana, one ofMr Nazarbayev’s pet project. If that goes smoothly, there could be even more important roles forMr Issekeshev.

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(Editorial from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

BGEO buys major Georgian utilities company

TBILISI, JUNE 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — BGEO, a London-listed holding company that owns Bank of Georgia, said it bought the 75% stake it didn’t already own in Georgian Global Utilities which controls some of the country’s biggest utility companies.

Offshore-registered Georgian Global Utilities (GGU), owns water and wastewater service providers in Tbilisi, Rustavi and Mtskheta and three hydropower generation facilities with a total capacity of 143MW. The purchase gives BGEO control over water and wastewater services for a third of the population.

In 2014, BGEO bought a 25% stake in GGU for $26.25m. It delayed buying another stake in GGU because of the uncertain position of the Georgian currency, the lari.

Now, with the new management brought in after the 2014 deal, BGEO said that GGU had improved its position and the lari currency had stabilised after losing 25% of its value.

“The combination of GGU’s strong performance during 2015 and the prospect of significant further improvement over the medium term led the BGEO board of directors to make the decision to step up the Group’s investment in GGU,” BGEO said in a statement.

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(News report from Issue No. 286, published on June 24 2016)

Irakli Gilauri, brother of former PM Nika Gilauri, is BGEO’s CEO.