Tag Archives: corruption

Agreement boosts business between Uzbekistan and Russia

OCT. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia signed into law an agreement with the Uzbek government that it hopes will defend Russian businesses in Uzbekistan.

The statement on the Russian government website was vague but also unequivocal. It said simply that the agreement would boost investments between Russia and Uzbekistan.

Uzbekistan has developed a reputation for being a notoriously difficult country for private companies to operate in. Businesses talk of intimidation from the authorities, police raids and unscheduled tax inspections.

Earlier this year Russian mobile operator MTS closed down its Uzbek subsidiary after a series of run-ins with the authorities.

This month VimpelCom, MTS’s main Russian rival, also complained of unscheduled tax inspections by the authorities in Tashkent.

So, the ratification by Russia’s government of an agreement with Uzbekistan to promote and protect each other’s business interests is, at least, timely. Time will tell just how useful it is too.

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(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)

Uzbek president visits Latvia

OCT. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek President Islam Karimov made his first state visit to the EU in nearly three years when he landed in Riga on Oct. 16.

Mr Karimov was officially in the Latvian capital to discuss bilateral relations and trade with Latvia’s president, Andris Berzins, as well as the withdrawal from Afghanistan of NATO forces. Latvia is a member of NATO and has supplied the US-led military alliance in Afghanistan with soldiers.

For Mr Karimov, though, there were other important reasons to visit Latvia. Until relatively recently, the EU had considered Uzbekistan a pariah state for various human rights abuses. European leaders are still wary of hosting Mr Karimov and he hadn’t been on a state visit to the EU since flying to Brussels in January 2011 to meet the EU and NATO chiefs.

An invitation to visit Latvia, an EU member since 2004, therefore carries more significance than it might normally. The publicity of a state visit to an EU member country would play well in the Uzbek press and television networks.

Latvia also takes over the EU presidency in 2015, so courting it now may be a clever strategy for Mr Karimov.

And then, of course, there is the small matter of a corruption investigation involving Sweden-based mobile operator TeliaSonera and payments allegedly made to Gulnara Karimova, Mr Karimov’s daughter, for a 3G licence in Uzbekistan in 2007. Investigators are looking into the role that a Latvian bank may have played in these alleged deals.

A useful trip to Latvia, then, for Mr Karimov.

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(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)

TeliaSonera manager demoted for Uzbek deal

OCT. 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swedish telecoms operator TeliaSonera demoted an executive for his role in deals made in 2007 to secure an Uzbek 3G licence. Tero Kivisaari was demoted from head of the company’s mobile division. Investigators allege TeliaSonera indirectly paid Gulnara Karimova, daughter of the Uzbek president, for the 3G licence.

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(News report from Issue No. 155, published on Oct. 9 2013)

Kazakhstan appoints new head of Stats Agency

OCT. 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a high-profile corruption case, police charged the former head of Kazakhstan’s Statistics Agency, Anar Meshimbayeva, with stealing 758m tenge ($4.9m) from a budget allocated for a national census in 2009. Ms Meshimbayeva fled Kazakhstan but was arrested in Moscow earlier this year and deported back to Kazakhstan.

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(News report from Issue No. 155, published on Oct. 9 2013)

Azerbaijan involved in Eurovision row

SEPT. 14 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Broadcasting Union is investigating allegations that Azerbaijan offered bribes to members of this year’s Eurovision jury, media reported. Eurovision is a major TV song contest. Many European countries view it as way of promoting themselves. Azerbaijan won the contest in 2011.

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(News report from Issue No. 152, published on Sept. 18 2013)

Competitiveness stalls in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Corruption and a poorly educated workforce are the biggest problems to doing business in Kazakhstan, according to executives interviewed in the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitive Index. The index ranked Kazakhstan at 50th position, up one place from last year, out of 148 countries.

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(News report from Issue No. 151, published on Sept. 11 2013)

Azerbaijan scores well in Global Competitiveness report

SEPT. 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — President Ilham Aliyev’s team have been highlighting Azerbaijan’s jump up the ranks of the World Economic Forum’s Global Competitiveness annual report.

It’s an election year, after all, in Azerbaijan and the WEF report is significant.

In an interview, Elnur Aslanov, head of the Mr Aliyev’s information centre, said Azerbaijan had moved to 39th position in the rankings from 48 last year because of the social and economic policies of the president.

It’s an impressive statistic. Azerbaijan has jumped from 55th position in 2011 and now lies above several EU states.

But it’s also worth looking at the detail.

The reason Azerbaijan ranks so highly in the WEF index is its high score for macroeconomic stability. Azerbaijan’s energy wealth gives it a healthy government debt ratio, a decent government budget balance and strong gross national savings. Azerbaijan also has relatively low inflation, another positive.

The report, though, also details serious shortcomings. These were mainly in the health and education sectors. Notably amongst these was the ranking for school management — 133rd in the world, out of 148 countries.

Significantly, too, of the business executives interviewed for the report nearly a quarter said corruption was still the biggest problem for doing business in Azerbaijan.

(News report from Issue No. 151, published on Sept. 11 2013)

Coalition collapses in Kyrgyzstan

AUG. 22 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s four-party governing coalition collapsed, triggering potential long-term political instability. The Ata-Meken and Ar-Namys parties, always tricky partners in the coalition, withdrew their support over corruption allegations against PM Omurbek Babanov and a stalling economy.

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(News report from Issue No. 102, published on Aug. 24 2012)

Georgian ex-minister acquitted

AUG. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Tbilisi acquitted Bacho Akhalaia, Georgia’s former interior minister and an ally of President Mikheil Saakashvili, of abusing his office. Mr Akhalaia still faces two other charges, including instigating a prison mutiny, in one of the most politically sensitive trials in Georgia in recent years.

(News report from Issue No. 146, published on Aug. 5 2013)

Kazakh fugitive arrested in France

AUG. 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — So, in the end, he hadn’t gotten very far. After nearly 18 months, police found the 50-year-old Mukhtar Ablyazov hiding in a luxury villa near Cannes on France’s sun drenched southern coast.

Kazakh prosecutors want to charge Ablyazov with trying to overthrow President Nursultan Nazarbayev and planning a series of bomb attacks in Almaty. He had moved to London to escape the Kazakh authorities but has been on the run since fleeing a court that convicted him of perjury. That was back in February 2012 during Ablyazov’s protracted case with BTA Bank, the Kazakh bank he used to be chair, which had accused him of embezzling billions.

Now Kazakhstan needs to work out how to get Ablyazov back to face prosecutors.

The problem for Mr Nazarbayev is that France can’t extradite him directly because Kazakhstan is not a member of the Council of Europe’s Extradition Convention.

This could have been a problem except, conveniently, Ukraine, which is a member of the extradition convention, has issued an extradition request for Ablayzov to face fraud charges. From Kiev, Ablyazov could then be sent on to Kazakhstan.

It promises to be a protracted extradition battle with human rights groups already warning the French government that Ablyazov is unlikely to get a fair hearing.

(News report from Issue No. 146, published on Aug. 5 2013)