OCT. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia has complained to NATO about an incursion by the Turkish military into its airspace earlier this month. Turkey is a NATO member and has stepped-up activity in the east of the country to counter the IS extremist group. Armenia’s military said that on Oct. 6 and Oct. 7 a Turkish military transport helicopter strayed into its airspace.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Eurasian Economic Commission published the latest statistics on trade turnover among EEU countries. It made for interesting, if also distressing, reading.
Trade among Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan was down by a quarter in Jan.-Aug. 2015, compared to the same period last year.
By volume, Russia was the country that suffered the largest fall, amounting to over $4b. In terms of percentage, however, all other countries except for Kyrgyzstan fared worse — Kyrgyzstan acceded as a full member only in August, so its numbers could be misleading.
Curiously, Armenia increased trade turnover with non-EEU countries such as Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan by over 40%.
In the two periods analysed by the Commission, oil prices were significantly different. And this can be clearly seen in Kazakhstan’s statistics, which show a sharp fall in exports to Italy, China and Russia, its main trade partners by volume. In particular, the value of Kazakhstan’s exports were reduced by the double whammy of lower oil prices and the decrease in the value of the tenge after the government abandoned its peg to the US dollar.
It is undeniable that the rouble crisis and the fall in oil prices have affected the Eurasian region. And the EEU has been unabel to contain the spill-over effects on its members.
OCT. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) —
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s president Nursultan Nazarbayev will visit Qatar, Britain and France over the next two weeks, according to his official website akorda.kz. Qatar is one of Kazakhstan’s main partners in financial and infrastructure cooperation. Mr Nazarbayev has cultivated close ties with Britain and France.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s state-owned utility Barqi Tojik said it imposed seasonal rationing of electricity on rural areas on Oct. 18. Tajikistan wants to become a regional exporter of electricity but issues with its own power grid and growing consumption have curbed its ambitions.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 20 2015, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — Triggering a furious reaction from Tbilisi, the Georgian rebel region of South Ossetia said that it planned to hold a referendum on whether to join Russia.
South Ossetian leader Leonid Tibilov made the announcement after meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, a vote that commentators said would mimic a similar vote in Crimea last year which preceded Russia’s annexation of the Ukrainian region.
“The referendum, the positive outcome of which I have no doubt, will allow us to unite our people,” media quoted Mr Tibilov as saying after meeting Vladislav Surkov, an adviser to Mr Putin.
He didn’t put a timeframe on the vote but did say that it would only go ahead with the express permission from Moscow.
And this appeared to have disappeared very quickly. The following day, the Kremlin released a statement which said that a referendum on South Ossetia joining Russia had not even been discussed at the meeting.
Georgia fought a war in 2008 against Russia over South Ossetia. After the war, Russia recognised the independence of South Ossetia and Georgia’s other breakaway region of Abkhazia.
Only a handful of other countries followed the Kremlin’s lead and recognised South Ossetia’s independence.
Any referendum in South Ossetia would strain relations between Russia and Georgia and predictably the Georgian government reacted strongly to Mr Tbililov’s statement.
“It just confirms the provocative policy which Russia is pursuing on South Ossetia. It is a continuation of Russia’s policy of ‘creeping occupation’,”Gigi Gigiadze, Georgia’s deputy foreign minister, told media.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Hundreds of people demonstrated in central Tbilisi against a potential deal with Gazprom to supply gas to Georgia. The demonstration was a response to a meeting last month between the Georgian government and Gazprom. Georgia and Russia fought a war in 2008 and relations are still strained.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz police captured a group of criminals who escaped last week from a prison outside Bishkek. Five of the nine fugitives died, two in clashes with the police and three in custody. Families and human rights groups have asked for an investigation.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A former colonel in the Uzbek security services stole 32 pieces of art from the state museum in Tashkent, media reported. Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, has previously accused members of the security services of stealing artwork. She has been under house arrest since March last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan and China inaugurated a cargo train service between Binzhou, east China, and Tashkent, an initiative aimed at boosting trade between the two countries. The 5,630km railway also passes through Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
OCT. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian airline company Transaero cancelled all flights from Moscow to destinations in Kazakhstan and Armenia after it declared bankruptcy. Russia’s Aeroflot will take over these flights. Transaero filed for bankruptcy on Oct. 1.
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(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct. 23 2015)
