AUG. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Turkmenistan have stopped a prominent horse breeder who has fallen out of favour with senior officials from leaving the country, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said. HRW said that Geldy Kyarizov and his family were barred from boarding a flight to Moscow where he was hoping to receive medical treatment.
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(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)
AUG. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia will host two naval exercises this year with the Azerbaijani and Kazakh navies, media reported quoting senior Russian officials. The drills will take place in the Caspian Sea. The first will be a bilateral exercise involving Azerbaijan and Russia. The second will be trilateral and also include Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)
AUG. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Barcelona beat fellow Spanish side Sevilla 5-4 in the final of the UEFA Super Cup in Tbilisi, arguably the most high profile game of football played in post-Soviet Georgia. Former president Mikheil Saakashvili had organised for the match to be played in Tbilisi, part of his drive to promote the country.
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(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)
AUG. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A senior UN official said that Tajikistan needed to prioritise bringing clean drinking water to more people. Leo Heller, Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, made the statement after a mission to the country.
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(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)
AUG. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Russian military court sentenced soldier Valery Permyakov to 10 years in jail for desertion and then handed him over to Armenian officials who are building a case to try him for the stabbing to death of an entire family earlier this year. Permyakov had been serving at the Gyumri military base in Armenia, one of Russia’s largest overseas bases.
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(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)
AUG. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India have picked Turkmengaz, the Turkmen national gas company, to lead the construction of the so-called TAPI pipeline which, they hope, will pump gas from Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent.
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(News report from Issue No. 242, published on Aug. 7 2015)
AUG. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Data from Georgia’s ministry of economy showed that the number of people flying between Tbilisi and Moscow had risen by three-quarters to around 143,000 people in the first seven of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014. Russia and Georgia have resumed direct air links, severed after a brief war in 2008.
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(News report from Issue No. 242, published on August 7 2015)
AUG. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s government will use cash generated by the $180m sale of the Vorotan Hydro Cascade hydropower plant earlier this year to subsidise a 16% increase in power prices, media quoted PM Hovik Abrahamian as saying. The announcement appears to be a climbdown as the power price rise had sparked protests.
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(News report from Issue No. 242, published on August 7 2015)
JULY 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Beijing beat Almaty in the race to host the 2022 Winter Olympics at a vote at a meeting of the International Olympic Committee in Kuala Lumpur. Almaty had been looking to become the only city in the former Soviet Union outside Russia to host an Olympic Games. President Nursultan Nazarbayev wants to burnish his image as the father-of-the-nation by hosting a major sporting event.
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(News report from Issue No. 242, published on Aug. 7 2015)
JUNE 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh Central Bank bought a 10% stake in Kazmunaigas from the country’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk Kazyna for 750b tenge ($4b), a move analysts said was designed to help the state- owned energy company pay off debts generated by a sharp fall in oil prices.
This is the second reorganisation of Kazmunaigas since June. It earlier announced the sale of half its 16.8% stake in the Kashagan oil project to Samruk-Kazyna for $4.7b.
Analysts at Halyk Bank, a Kazakh bank, said the latest move shifted debt once again from Kazmunaigas to Samruk Kazyna to the Central Bank.
“If the first transaction raised the net debt of Samruk-Kazyna, the second lowered Samruk- Kazyna’s net debt, and the credit risk. By divesting of Kazmunaigas, Samruk-Kazyna reduced the most expensive part of its debt,” Halyk Finance senior analysts Sabit Khakimzhanov and Gulmariya Zhapakova said in a note to clients.
Delays at Kashagan and a sharp fall in oil prices have worsened Kazmunaigas’ financial affairs.
But, although unprecedented, the Central Bank’s purchase will change little in Kazakhstan’s oil sector. The two transactions may have helped Kazmunaigas achieve a better financial position in the short term, but both moves are temporary.
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(News report from Issue No. 242, published on Aug. 7 2015)
