Category Archives: Uncategorised

Kazakh fugitive Ablyazov is set for Russia

OCT. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – French PM Manuel Valls ordered Kazakh fugitive Mukhtar Ablyazov to be extradited to Russia to face fraud charges. French police arrested Ablyazov in a villa on the south coast in 2013. He had been on the run since being found guilty of contempt of court in London in 2012. He fled Kazakhstan in 2009 after being accused of stealing $6b from BTA Bank. Kazakhstan wants him extradited to face charges of trying to organise a coup.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct.16 2015)

SDK wins Kyrgyz election

OCT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan released official results for its Oct. 4 parliamentary election that cemented the Social Democrat’s (SDK) grip on power. The SDK, the party of President Almazbek Atambayev, won 38 seats, up from 26 in 2010. Second was Respublika-Ata Jurt with 28 seats. The Kyrgyzstan party won 18 seats, Onuugu- Progress 13 seats, Bir Bol 12 seats and Ata-Meken 11 seats.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct.16 2015)

Russia wants to patrol Tajik-Afghan border

OCT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s deputy minister of defence, General Yuri Borisov, said that Russian President Vladimir Putin was in talks with Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon to station soldiers on the Tajik-Afghan border to fight off any potential threat from the Taliban. Russia and Central Asian leaders have grown increasingly wary of the push north of the Taliban.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct.16 2015)

Turkmenistan denies border problems

OCT. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s government issued a rare statement denying a claim by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev that he was aware of what he described as “incidences” on the Turkmen-Afghan border. Turkmenistan said Mr Nazarbayev’s claim was “untrue” and “incomprehensible”. Taliban activity has been increasing along the border with Turkmenistan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct.16 2015)

Azerbaijan considers 2nd devaluation

OCT. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan is considering following Kazakhstan and allowing its manat currency to float free, the head of the Central Bank Elman Rustamov said to media, effectively warning of a another devaluation. Azerbaijan devalued its currency by 33% in February but has still had to spend billions defending its value since then.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct.16 2015)

UN criticises Kazakh NGO law

OCT. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A bill under review by Kazakhstan’s parliament threatens the independence of NGOs in the country, the UN said. The bill is being likened to a law in Russia which cut NGOs’ ability to receive funding from overseas. If the law is passed, the Kazakh government will control funding to all civil society groups.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 253, published on Oct.16 2015)

KazTransGas talks with Georgia

OCT. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — KazTransGas, Kazakhstan’s state owned gas distributor, warned Georgia it might take their dispute over its subsidiary to international arbitration if Georgia failed to restart negotiations. KazTransGas is looking for compensation for the $130m it spent on its subsidiary KazTransGas-Tbilisi in 2006-09 before the Georgian government took control of the company.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Activists protest NGO law in Kazakhstan

OCT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Human Rights activists in Kazakhstan have asked President Nursultan Nazarbayev to veto a bill being reviewed by the Senate which will make it harder for domestic NGOs to receive funding from overseas. Campaigners said the bill is a form of state control over NGOs.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

Stock market: KAZ Minerals, Nostrum, KEGOC

OCT. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The biggest mover in the stock markets for Central Asia and the South Caucasus was London-listed KAZ Minerals, which gained a staggering 65% since the beginning of October at 145p on Friday. Its performance was in line with most commodity producers which were hit by the Glencore slump last week.

Kazakhstan-focused Nostrum Oil & Gas was stable this week at around 524 pence, after rebounding from a sharp drop last week. Its failed takeover offer for Tethys Petroleum affected its performance in the market.

Polyus Gold continued its roller- coaster to end the week at 198 pence. Polyus has shown a volatility of +/- 3% over the past three weeks.

In local markets, KEGOC, Kazakhstan’s state-owned electricity company became one of the strongest players in KASE, gaining over 25% in the past three weeks. However, because its stocks are denominated in tenge, the value of its assets has not fared as well as it seems. Speculative moves behind the multi-million dollar transactions of the past weeks have turned KEGOC into an appealing investment in a market marred with worsening assets.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)

ICC plans 2008 Georgia-Russia war investigation

OCT. 7 2015, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — The Hague based International Criminal Court (ICC) said that it wanted to start investigating alleged war crimes committed during a 2008 conflict between Georgia and Russia.

One of the ICC’s prosecutors, Fatou Bensouda, has lodged a potential case with the court and is waiting for authorisation on whether to launch an official investigation. If a full investigation is initiated and charges brought against either Russian or Georgian officials, the case will likely worsen relations between the two neighbours.

“On the basis of the information available, Prosecutor Bensouda has concluded that there is a reasonable basis to believe that crimes within the jurisdiction of the Court have been committed in Georgia in the context of the armed conflict of August 2008,” the ICC said in a statement.

“She will shortly submit a request to the Pre-Trial Chamber for authorisation to open an investigation into this Situation.”

During the five day war in August 2008 that focused on the Georgian rebel region of South Ossetia, human rights groups alleged that both sides fired cluster bombs.

They also said that forces linked to Russia had burned houses belonging to Georgian farmers.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)