Category Archives: Uncategorised

Kazakhstan cycling team wins the race

MAY 29 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Vincenzo Nibali, captain of the Kazakhstan-sponsored Astana Cycling Team, won the Giro d’Italia, one of the classic cycling races. Mr Nibali won after the race leader Giacomo Nizzolo was disqualified for irregular conduct. Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna sponsors and funds the Astana Team. Wearing the country’s light blue colours, Mr Nibali has also won the Tour de France in 2014 and another Giro in 2013.

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

RusHydro to invest in Armenia

JUNE 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The International Energy Corporation, a subsidiary of Russia’s state- owned electricity company RusHydro, said it would invest 18.9b dram (around $4m) into modernising the Yerevan-1 hydropower plant. Yerevan-1 is part of a seven-hydropower plant complex collectively called Sevan-Hrazdan Cascade. RusHydro owns a 90% stake in the company.

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Editorial: Pro-government demonstrations in Kazakhstan

JUNE 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A pro-government protest demonstrating against anti-government protests is not a new practice in Central Asia.

This was the scenario in Kazakhstan this week and even if it might not be a new issue but it is still an insightful one. The authorities are getting increasingly worried that their opponents are gaining in strength.

The main targets of the pro-government protest this week were the US consulate in Almaty and expatriate Kazakhs in San Francisco and New York.

The pro-government protesters, well organised and clearly linked to the authorities, accused the US of stirring anti-government feelings, a standard complaint by former Soviet governments facing popular discontent. They also denounced the protesters in the US as traitors who didn’t understand how loved President Nursultan Nazarbayev was in Kazakhstan.

But rather than criticise the protesters in the US and the US consulate in Almaty, perhaps it would be more effective for the authorities in Kazakhstan to listen to their critics.

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(Editorial from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Georgia’s President vetoes bill

MAY 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s President Giorgi Margvelashvili vetoed a bill to change procedures in and the composition of the country’s Constitutional Court, sending back to Parliament the controversial draft law. MPs from the ruling Georgian Dream party said they will not seek to override the veto and will amend the bill to accommodate the demands of the opposition. Critics of the amendments to Constitutional Court had complained that the changes were designed to give the government more power. Mr Margvelashvili has previously blocked legislation put forward by the Georgian Dream coalition government, of which he is a member.

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Subsistence level rises in Kazakhstan

JUNE 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The minimum subsistence level in Kazakhstan increased by 0.5% in May, indicating that inflation and slower economic growth have hit people’s livelihoods. The Statistics Committee said Kazakhs need a minimum of 20,630 tenge ($61) to survive. This is 8.5% higher than in May last year but is still slower than annualised inflation of 16.7%.

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Azerbaijan’s minister urges AZAL to pay depts

MAY 31 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s ministry of finance urged AZAL, the national airline, to start paying back its debts and cut costs. Finance minister Samir Sharifov said that in order to buy new aircrafts AZAL has accumulated over 650m manat ($450m) in state-guaranteed loans, which could become a burden to the state budget if AZAL becomes insolvent. Several state-owned and private companies in Azerbaijan have increased their borrowings as an economic downturn hits profits.

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Kazakhstan’s stock lists Magnum’s bond

MAY 27 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — KASE, Kazakhstan’s stock exchange, said it listed 10-year bonds issued by Magnum Cash & Carry, a chain of discount stores in Kazakhstan. The total issue amounted to 33b tenge (around $100m), one-third of the amount that Magnum plans to issue in the short term to finance its expansion in the country. In May 2014, Kenes Rakishev, son-in-law of Kazakhstan’s defence minister and closely-linked to the elite, bought a minority share in the company.

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Georgian breakaway region hosts football tournament for unrecognised states

MAY 28 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The breakaway Georgian region of Abkhazia is hosting a football tournament for regions which are not recognised as countries, a move that some critics have said is provocative.

The 10-day tournament will centre on Sukhumi, the capital of Abkhazia which lies on the Black Sea coast.

Only a handful of countries, including Russia, have recognised Abkhazia as an independent state. Abkhazia and South Ossetia split from Georgia in the early 1990s after the break-up of the Soviet Union, and declared full independence after a Georgia-Russia war in 2008.

And it’s an eclectic bunch of 12 ethnic groups, pseudo-states, wannabe-countries and historical-throwbacks that are competing at the so-called alternative World Cup.

Teams playing in the tournament include Raetia, a former province of the Roman Empire in central Europe, Iraqi Kurdistan and Somaliland.

Abkhazia, which opened with a 9-0 win over the Chagos Islands, is one of the favourites.

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

KazKom buys back bonds

JUNE 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazkommertsbank, Kazakhstan’s largest lender, said it had bought back part of its outstanding bonds, spending around $35m in total. In May, CEO Kenes Rakishev had said the bank was ready to repurchase as much as $500m in outstanding bonds. After the latest transaction, KazKom has to pay back around $522m from two bond issues due later this year and €392m ($437m) due in February 2017.

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(News report from Issue No. 283, published on June 3 2016)

Georgia’s city develops

MAY 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — House in Alley, a local development company, said it will build a new hotel in Batumi, a resort town on Georgia’s Black Sea coast. The company said the new hotel, which will cost 18m lari ($8.4m), will hold 105 rooms. The new hotel is part of the government-supported project to improve the area around the Heroes Alley in central Batumi. Batumi is Georgia’s top resort town.

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(News report from Issue No. 282, published on May 27 2016)