SEPT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – After meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin at his villa outside Moscow, Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan said that Russia had agreed to give Armenia a loan of $200m to modernise its military. Russia is one of Armenia’s most important allies and keeps a large military base in the country.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s Central Bank spent nearly $1.2b defending the value of it manat currency in August despite devaluing it by a third earlier in the year.
With oil prices, the key driver of Azerbaijan’s economy, stubbornly hovering around 7-year lows, the data will add more pressure onto the currency and suggests that another devaluation may be possible. Across the Caspian Sea, oil-exporter Kazakhstan effectively devalued its currency for a second time last month after trying to defend it for over a year.
Reuters quoted a high-placed source at the Azerbaijani Central Bank as saying: “August 2015 was difficult from a financial point of view. The economies of large countries of the world declined and the price of oil also fell on world markets, which influenced the state of the manat.”
The Central Bank data showed that its reserves had fallen to $7.31b by the end of August from $8.5b at the end of July.
The South Caucasus and Central Asia region is trying to cope with a sharp decline in its economy. Suppressed oil prices and a recession in Russia have dragged down growth. Azerbaijan with its dependency on oil has suffered more than most.
The latest data means that the Azerbaijani Central Bank has spent 42% of its total reserves this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – SOCAR, the Azerbaijani state oil and gas company, said in the first 8 months of 2015 it shipped 930,671 tonnes of oil to Russia, up from 677,785 tonnes during the same period in 2014. Azerbaijan- Russia relations have improved over the past year as Azerbaijan’s relations with the West have faltered.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 8 2015, BISHKEK (The Conway Bulletin) — More than a quarter of Kyrgyz citizens eligible to vote in next month’s parliamentary election have not submitted their biometric data to the authorities ahead of a Sept. 19 deadline, the State Registration Service said.
Under new election rules, if people fail to submit their personal biometric data before the deadline their right to vote will be withdrawn, drawing criticism from human rights defenders who have said this is a breach of civil liberties. They also said government agencies were not competent enough to protect the data.
The State Registration Service said it still hadn’t receive data from 1,072,080 people of the 3,777,500 electorate. The data people need to submit includes an electronic signature, photos and fingerprints.
In central Bishkek, a 22-year-old man explained why he had not to submit his data.
“Our people love freedom. I don’t want to be controlled by the state,” he said, without giving his name,
The risk for the government is that if a quarter of the electorate chooses not to register for the Oct. 4 vote, it will fail to deliver a genuine mandate.
Rita Karasartova, head of Institute of Public Analysis, a Kyrgyz NGO, told local media she thought many people were unaware that the deadline to submit biometric data was two weeks ahead of the election itself.
“Citizens will start submitting biometrics at the eve of the elections because they will not be aware of this deadline,” she said, warning this may trigger complaints about voters’
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to Tehran, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev said he wanted Iran to join the Russia and China-led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO). Mr Atambayev held meetings with his Iranian counter-part Hassan Rouhani to persuade Iran, which is set to become a major regional partner once Western sanctions are removed, to invest in infrastructure projects in Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian PM Hovik Abrahamyan wants to allow citizens of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) to travel to Armenia without a passport, media reported. He said only 20% of Russians have passports, a major drag on potential tourist numbers, and suggested that they could travel to Armenia on internal passports.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Toronto-listed Centerra Gold, owner of the Kumtor gold mine in east Kyrgyzstan, has paid 4.3 trillion som (around $65m) in taxes to the Kyrgyz government in the first 8 months of 2015, the ministry of finance said. In 2014, Centerra accounted for 7.4% of Kyrgyzstan’s GDP.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A bomb exploded near a mosque in central Tashkent. Nobody was hurt in the explosion. Police said they are looking for two people who left the bomb in a bag at a bus stop.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has approved a bill that will increase customs duties on sausages, fruit, vegetable, softs drinks and fruit juice and come into force on Oct. 1. Mr Berdymukhamedov has said he wants a policy of import substitution.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 11 2015, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed his daughter, Dariga Nazarbayeva, to be a deputy PM, triggering an avalanche of speculation that she was being lined up to succeed him.
The appointment caps a remarkable turnaround for Ms Nazarbayeva who in 2007 fell out with her father and was forced to relinquish her seat in parliament and her media business interests.
Analysts said that her appointment as deputy PM was significant.
“It does look like a sign of succession,” Nargis Kassenova, professor of International Relations at KIMEP University in Almaty.
“Now with no danger of Rakhat Aliyev coming back, there seems to be no serious constraint to keep her away from top executive positions.”
Ms Nazarbayeva had been married to Rakhat Aliyev who fled into exile in 2007 and set himself up in opposition to President Nazarbayev. He was later arrested and charged in Vienna with murdering two Kazakh bankers outside Almaty.
Mr Nazarbayev had wanted him extradited but this year, the day before he was to stand trial, Aliyev was found hanged in his prison cell.
The succession issue for President Nazarbayev has become one of his most pressing. The 75-year-old, who has ruled over Kazakhstan since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, has not yet named a successor, which has allowed rumours to swirl and instability to take root.
Ms Kassenova, the KIMEP professor, said that Ms Nazarbayeva’s promotion may already have been trailed when President Nazarbayev earlier this month spoke about the Asian model of democracy.
“This dynastic approach to power is probably what President Nazarbayev had in mind when he recently referred to our Asian traditions to explain a slow move to Western-style democracy,” she said.
Ms Nazarbayeva returned to parliament in the 2012 election and has since held the position of deputy speaker of parliament.
There are other potential rivals for power. These include PM Karim Massimov, defence minister Imangali Tasmagambetov and Timur Kulibayev, the former head of Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund and the husband of Mr Nazarbayev’s second daughter.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
