Category Archives: Uncategorised

Ex-Georgia President says he has voice in UNM

MAY 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Mikheil Saakashvili, former President of Georgia, now head of the local administration in Odessa, Ukraine, said he would go back to Georgia to campaign for his UNM party ahead of parliamentary elections next October. Mr Saakashvili told the Georgian TV channel Rustavi 2 that he still has a say in the UNM, the party he founded, and that he wants to be engaged in both Ukraine and Georgia.

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

Kyrgyz environmental court fines Centerra

BISHKEK, MAY 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Kyrgyz court fined the Kumtor Gold Company, a subsidiary of Canada’s Centerra Gold, 6.7b som ($98m) for environmental damage, in a move that will strain relations between the government and the mining company.

The fine follows an earlier penalty of $10,000 the court levied at Kumtor on May 23. Centerra, has denied any wrongdoing.

“Centerra and Kumtor strongly dispute the claims and will appeal both decisions to the Bishkek City Court and, if necessary, to the Supreme Court. Centerra and Kumtor have expressly reserved their rights to refer such disputes to international arbitration,” John Pearson, VP of investor relations at Centerra, said. Although strictly unrelated to the ongoing spat between Centerra

and the Kyrgyz government, the latest series of fines are a sign that relations are worsening. The Kyrgyz government wants to own a direct share in Kumtor Gold.

Last month, Kyrgyz police raided a Centerra-owned office in Bishkek looking for evidence linked to allegations Centerra had received an illegal dividend in 2013 from Kumtor Gold.

Centerra has denied the allegations.

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

Kazakhstan-focused company posts revenue fall

MAY 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hit by sustained low oil prices, Kazakhstan-focused energy company Nostrum Oil & Gas posted a 27% fall in revenues in Q1 2016, compared to the previous year. Importantly, average daily production fell by 15% compared to last year, to 38,754 barrels of oil per day.

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

Kazakhstan to receive loan from World Bank

MAY 26 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s Parliament ratified an agreement to receive a $1b loan from the World Bank’s International Bank for Reconstruction and Development, a cash injection that the government will use to pay for expenses in 2016. Kazakhstan’s finance ministry and the IBRD had agreed on the loan on May 11.

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

IMF forecasts Kazakh economy

MAY 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Christine Lagarde, managing director of the IMF, said that Kazakhstan has to embark on a series of institutional reforms and deepen regional integration to face the challenges posed by sustained low oil prices. Ms Lagarde spoke from Astana, where she met President Nursultan Nazarbayev and senior government officials. Ms Lagarde also praised the ditching of the tenge’s US dollar peg last year.

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

Kazakh minister says Tengiz expansion will be delayed

MAY 25 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s energy minister Kanat Bozumbayev said that investment into the expansion of Tengizchevroil, the Chevron-led consortium exploiting the Tengiz oilfield in the west of the country, will be delayed until next year. Mr Bozumbayev said that costs for the so-called Future Growth Project would be $37b, up from an earlier estimate of $34b. The project has been delayed because of the low oil prices.

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

Kazakh President’s brother buys bank

MAY 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Bolat Nazarbayev, brother of Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, bought a 50% stake in the Ukrainian lender Eurobank. The remaining 50% of the bank is indirectly owned by Ukrainian financier Vadim Pushkarev. In 2014, Bolat Nazarbayev bought a 7.83% stake in Kazakhstan’s Bank RBK.

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

Azerbaijan’s railway signs agreement with DHL

MAY 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s state-owned railway company signed an agreement with German logistics giant DHL to establish a hub in Azerbaijan to service Turkey, Russia and Europe with goods coming from China. Azerbaijan Railways’ representative Nadir Azmammadov met with a DHL delegation in Istanbul.

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

Journalists in Kazakhstan go on strike

MAY 20 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Journalists at Kazinform, the Kazakh government’s media outlet, said they would go on a strike on May 21 because of wage arrears, but later called it off. Importantly, strikes at Kazinform are rare. The last recorded strike was in 2010. May 21 was a sensitive date as a popular protest against changes to the land code was planned on the same day. The government stepped in and met the demands of Kazinform journalists.

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

Chinese leader to visit Azerbaijan

MAY 22/23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Chinese President Xi Jingping will make his first visit to Azerbaijan later this year, a major boost for Azerbaijan’s President Ilham Aliyev who has appeared an increasingly fringe figure on the international stage after the arrests of dozens of critics and the outbreak of violence in the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh.

Six months after Mr Aliyev visited Beijing, a delegation from China, led by Presidential Special Envoy Meng Jianzhu, arrived in Baku to prepare the way for Mr Xi.

It will be his first visit to the South Caucasus, underlining China’s interest in the region.

During the meeting with President Aliyev on May 22, Mr Meng reiterated his country’s interest to expand ties with Azerbaijan, particularly in law enforcement, security and cyber crime. The following day, Azerbaijan and China signed a memorandum of cooperation in the security sector.

Zohrab Ismayilov, an Azerbaijani independent economist and analyst, told the Conway Bulletin that Mr Aliyev has grown increasingly interested in China as Azerbaijan’s economy has been hard hit following the sharp drop in oil prices.

“Mr Aliyev is trying to find a third reliable partner and continues to manoeuvre between Russia and the West,” he said.

“Also, the government assumes that Chinese investments will be politically less risky than investments from Moscow or the West as Beijing does not have a strong geopolitical interest in the region.”

China became one of Azerbaijan’s top ten trading partners for the first time in 2015 with trade worth $565m. This compares to $2.8b of trade with Russia, its top partner.

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