FEB 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The EU’s Schengen region officially scrapped visas for Georgians, a major policy victory for Georgia’s government. Georgians are now able to visit the 26-country Schengen Zone without a visa.
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(News report from Issue No. 319, published on March 3 2017)
FEB. 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Armenian authorities have started discussing setting up Farsi learning centres, installing bill- boards aimed at Farsi speakers and a Farsi information hotline. Media reported the Farsi-language drive was a tactic to encourage more Iranians to visit Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 319, published on March 3 2017)
FEB. 28 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swedish telecoms company Telia has asked the Tajik government for a face-to-face meeting to explain a tax investigation against its local subsidiary, Tcell, which has slowed its previously agreed sale to the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development. Telia wants to sell its Central Asian subsidiaries after a corruption scandal in Uzbekistan damaged its reputation.
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(News report from Issue No. 319, published on March 3 2017)
MARCH 2 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Strong oil prices may boost GDP growth in Kazakhstan to 2.8% this year, economy minister Timur Suleimenov told Reuters in an interview. The previous government GDP growth estimate for 2017 had been 2.5%. Last month, Kazakhstan increased its expected oil price this year for its government budget to $50/barrel up from $35/barrel.
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(News report from Issue No. 319, published on March 3 2017)
FEB. 28 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Football Federation appointed 26-year-old Aysultan Nazarbayev, President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s grandson, as its vice- president. Nazarbayev junior is keen on football and trained for six months with the English football club Portsmouth. He is the eldest son of Pres. Nazarbayev’s daughter Dariga Nazarbayeva and has even been spoken of as a future president.
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(News report from Issue No. 319, published on March 3 2017)
MARCH 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Deflation in Armenia continued to slow in January, just as the Central Bank said it would earlier in the year. The National Statistics Service said that prices dropped by an average of 0.2% in February compared to the same period in 2016. In January, year-on-year deflation had measured -0.6% and in February 2016 it had measured -1.7%.
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(News report from Issue No. 319, published on March 3 2017)
MARCH 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Uzbekistan detained human rights campaigner Elena Urlaeva, Reuters reported quoting a video message she posted on the internet. In her video message, Ms Urlaeva said that she had been detained, beaten and taken to a psychiatric unit in Tashkent. She is best known for campaigning against forced labour in the cotton industry. She had been due to meet with the World Bank to discuss forced labour violations.
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(News report from Issue No. 319, published on March 3 2017)
MARCH 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Prices in Georgia were 5.5% higher in February 2017 compared to the same month in 2016, the State Statistics Service said, confirming Central Bank predictions of inflation pressure when it raised interest rates last month (March 2). It had set an inflation target of 4% in 2017.
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(News report from Issue No. 319, published on March 3 2017)
MARCH 1 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — At the end of a two-week mission to Georgia, the IMF agreed a three year $285m funding programme aimed at encouraging economic reform and Western investors. The deal replaces an earlier one that had expired. It should give the Georgian govern- ment an extra level of support as it pulls out of an economic malaise.
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(News report from Issue No. 319, published on March 3 2017)
BISHKEK, FEB 27/28 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hundreds of people in Kyrgyzstan protested against the arrest of opposition leader Omurbek Tekebayev, sparking worries of pro-tracted anti-government street demonstrations.
By the end of the week, the crowds had dissipated from a peak of 300 in Bishkek and 200 in Bazar Korgon, the town in southern region of Jalal-abad where Mr Tekebayev was born.
Even so, the sight of angry protesters, mainly young men, marching through the streets of Bishkek to the White House, the presidential office, noisily airing their grievances brought back memories of 2005 and 2010 when violent revolutions over- threw two governments.
Mr Tekebayev has been charged with corruption linked to the telecoms company Megacom in 2010. His supporters have said that the charges are politically motivated, designed to scupper any chances that Mr Tekebayev has of winning a presidential election set for November.
Addressing the crowd, Rosa Otunbayeva, a former Kyrgyz president and one of Mr Tekebayev’s most high-profile supporters, described his arrest as political persecution.
Kyrgyzstan’s society is increasingly polarised and November’s election is likely to be a tense affair. President Almazbek Atambayev is stepping down after one term in power, as stipulated by the constitution. He has not yet named a preferred successor.
Murat Borombai, a resident of Bishkek, said he went to the demonstration to support the opposition and not Mr Tekebayev in particular.
“These people are opposed to the state authorities who have started to repeat the way of authoritarianism, violations of civil rights the move to lawlessness and arbitrariness,” he said.
The authorities have denied that there was any political motivation behind the arrest of Mr Tekebayev or any of his colleagues.
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(News report from Issue No. 319, published on March 3 2017)
