JAN. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia has banned chicken imports from six regions of Iran because of an outbreak of bird flu, media reported. Trade between Iran and Armenia has increased rapidly over the past few years meaning that the ban will hit chicken supplies in Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)f
ALMATY, JAN. 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a televised address to the nation lasting 9-1/2 minutes, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev described how he wanted to bring in a series of reforms that would shift power from the president to parliament.
The main proposals focused on how the government was formed. Currently,Mr Nazarbayev appoints all the key positions in government and the state’s main agencies. This was a task that he said he wanted to hand over to the PM. He also said that he wanted parliament to have more say over social and economic issues.
“The point of the proposed reform isina serious redistribution of powers and democratisation of the political system as a whole,” he said during this address in both Kazakh and Russian with his trademark formal and deadpan delivery.
The speech, though, was short on detail and lacked a timeframe for the proposed changes. Although the aim of the speech appears to be to burnish Mr Nazarbayev’s credentials as a democrat and to ease concerns that he doesn’t have a succession plan, the main reaction was derision.
In Almaty, Mikhail, 29, said: “This is another imitation and an attempt to shift the responsibility for worsening living conditions.”
And analysts said Mr Nazarbayev appeared eager to disengage from difficult social and employment policies but retain control of duties linked to foreign policy and security. “It’s almost like he wants to pass off responsibility for the really hard stuff,” said Bruce Pannier, a Central Asia analyst at RFE/RL.
Not everybody was downbeat.
“That sounds great, nonetheless these reforms require strengthening of mass media and freedom of speech,” said Galym, 26.
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(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)
JAN. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In possibly the biggest mass amnesty by a former Soviet state, Uzbekistan pardoned 40,000 prisoners. The amnesty focused on inmates imprisoned for minor crimes, foreigners, women, young offenders and people over the age of 60. Human rights groups accuse Uzbekistan of locking up political prisoners. No notable political prisoners were released. Central Asian countries use amnesties to mark anniversaries and to release pressure on their prison populations.
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(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)
ALMATY, JAN. 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s ministry of education ordered universities in Astana to start their academic year for 2017/18 late because of EXPO- 2017 which is scheduled to run from June 10 to Sept. 10.
The education ministry has not explained why it needed students to begin their term late but long-term residents of Astana said it was likely to be to try and reduce pressure on the city’s public services and to reduce traffic on its streets.
Many students are unimpressed.
“Humanly, it is not normal,” saidGabit,a student at one of the medical universities in Astana. “It is inconvenient, for us and for the doctors who teach us since they have to work after shift. They were indignant at first butunfortunately the decree is already released.”
The education ministry was unavailable for the comments.
The organisers of EXPO-2017 have been planning the event for years. They expect thousands of visitors from all around the world to converge on Astana, the Kazakh capital that President Nursultan Nazarbayev built on the windswept steppe in the mid-1990s, for three months, testing its services to the limit.
They are also under extra pressure because Mr Nazarbayev, keen to promote Kazakhstan, has taken a personal interest in EXPO-2017.
Didar Sarsenov who lives in Astana said that he could see why the government wanted to delay tens of thousands of students from returning to the city for their studies.
“On the one side it is the right thing to do, from the other it is not,” he said. “They must cope with the flow of people. But proper organisation (of EXPO-2017) should mean that the study process starts on time.”
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(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)
JAN. 24 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenian PM Karen Karapetyan flew to Moscow for a series of meetings, including with Russian PM Dmitry Medvedev, designed to underline just how close relations between the two countries are. Armenia has been compared, by some analysts as a Russian vassal state, reliant on it for trade, military and energy cooperation. This was Mr Karapetyan’s first visit to Russia as PM. He has close personal ties with Russia and previously used to work for Gazprom Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 314, published on Jan. 27 2017)
JAN. 14 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Eriell GmbH, an Austria-registered company whose biggest shareholder is Gazprombank, has bought a 51% stake in Sarbon-Neftegaz from the state-owned Uzbekenergo, the Tashkent stock exchange reported. The Italian-language agcnews.eu website said that Eriell had paid $3.94m for the stake. Sarbon-Neftegaz provides transport services to oil and gas companies in Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)
JAN. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia has said 2,000 soldiers will take part in a major military exercise in the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia later this month. The exercise will also involve tanks and artillery and will be viewed as a provocation by Georgia. South Ossetia was the focus of fighting between Georgia and Russia in a five day 2008 war. Russia held a similar military exercise in South Ossetia in 2016 too.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)
JAN. 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia has said 2,000 soldiers will take part in a major military exercise in the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia later this month. The exercise will also involve tanks and artillery and will be viewed as a provocation by Georgia. South Ossetia was the focus of fighting between Georgia and Russia in a five day 2008 war. Russia held a similar military exercise in South Ossetia in 2016 too.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)
JAN. 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Kazakhstan have decided not to dictate telecoms prices this year, the telecompaper.com website reported quoting Kazakh sources. The authorities had considered interfering in the competitive Kazakh market, which has been characterised by price drops. Telecompaper.com said that the decision would make Kazakh telecoms companies more competitive in the Eurasian Economic Union.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)
JAN. 18 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Kazakhstan have decided not to dictate telecoms prices this year, the telecompaper.com website reported quoting Kazakh sources. The authorities had considered interfering in the competitive Kazakh market, which has been characterised by price drops. Telecompaper.com said that the decision would make Kazakh telecoms companies more competitive in the Eurasian Economic Union.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 313, published on Jan. 20 2017)
