FEB. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — In an interview with Reuters news agency, Georgia’s economy minister Georgy Kvirikasvili said he may halve the country’s projected economic growth to 2.5% this year. Mr Kvirikasvili said the side-effects of Ukraine’s civil war and the sanctions on Russia had hurt Georgia’s economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)
FEB. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A limited OSCE election monitoring team arrived in Tashkent to observe Uzbekistan’s March 29 presidential election. The OSCE is Europe’s main democracy watchdog. It has monitored five elections in Uzbekistan since 1999, all of which it said lacked genuine competition and debate.
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(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)
FEB. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A car plant factory in Uzbekistan has started producing parts for cars in Brazil, media reported. UzSungwoo is an Uzbek-Korean joint venture. It was set up to produce parts for GM’s plant in Uzbekistan. Demand has dropped at the GM plant because of an economic crisis, possibly triggering UzSungwoo to sell to Brazil.
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(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)
FEB. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — After two weeks out of public sight, Uzbek president Islam Karimov resurfaced at an election rally in Kashkadaryo, in the south of the country.
At the rally, broadcast on state television, he vigorously told watchers to work together harmoniously to build up civil society.
The carefully stage-managed appearance was necessary because Mr Karimov had to, effectively, remind his countrymen that he is still in charge and is healthy, despite rumours of the opposite.
Mr Karimov’s disappearances are a talking point because they generally trigger gossip and musings on his health. Now, barely a month before a presidential election that Mr Karimov is expected to win, that speculation was intensified.
He was last seen at the beginning of February accepting the credentials of the new US ambassador to Uzbekistan.
Uzbekistan is, currently, relatively unstable. Mr Karimov is 77-years-old and without an apparent successor.
His daughter, Gulnara, is under house arrest and the security service chiefs appear stronger than ever. It is not even clear how much authority Mr Karimov holds on a day-to-day basis.
And all this instability is worrying for the West, analysts have said. They think that the West would prefer a strong President Karimov to contain any nascent signs of growing Islamic extremism.
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(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)
FEB. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Baku ordered the pre-trial detention of human rights activist Arif Yunus to be extended by five months, local media reported. Mr Yunus is the husband of Leyla Yunus who has also been arrested on accusations of treason. Both have denied the charges and said that they are politically motivated.
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(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)
FEB. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan intends to increase production of gas in 2015 to around 80b cubic metres compared to 76b cubic metres in 2014, media reported quoting its energy ministry.
This is important because it underlines Turkmenistan’s determination to sell more gas to make up for the drop in prices.
Over the last few years Turkmenistan has built up its client base for gas and shifted itself into position as one of the region’s major gas suppliers.
Its main client is China but Europe, India and Pakistan are also clamouring to receive more gas.
News that Turkmen President Kurbangkuly Berdymukhamdov wants to increase gas production this year will be a boost for the proposed TAPI pipeline that is planned to run from Turkmenistan across Afghanistan to Pakistan and India and also for a potential pipeline to run under the Caspian Sea that will feed gas to Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)
FEB. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The EU’s special envoy for human rights, Stavros Lambrinidis, flew to Azerbaijan for a visit that is expected to culminate in a critical evaluation of the Azerbaijani government. Human rights groups urged Mr Stavros to use his trip to pressure the authorities into releasing various prisoners.
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(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)
FEB. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in the central Kazakh town of Temirtau sentenced two men to eight and 11 years in prison for links to radical Islam and plotting a series of attacks. One of the men, prosecutors said, tried to recruit people to head out to join the extremist IS group in Syria.
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(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)
FEB. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — In an effort to stop its currency from sliding further, the Georgian Central Bank said it had sold another $40m of its reserves. This is the third time this month it has sold US dollar reserves to prop up its lari currency.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)
FEB. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia’s Central Bank has said that economic growth this year could virtually stagnate at a mere 0.4%, media reported. This figure is at the lower end of its updated estimate which blamed a poor Russian economy for the general slowdown in Armenia’s own economic prospects.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 220, published on Feb. 25 2015)
