AUG. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a decree on allowing Kyrgyzstan into the Russia- led Eurasian Economic Union. This was the final piece of paperwork that Kyrgyzstan needed to enter the trade bloc. Other members of the Eurasian Economic Union include Belarus and Armenia, which also joined this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 242, published on Aug. 7 2015)
JULY 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Almaty-based Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) will loan $300m to Armenia to weather tough economic conditions, media reported quoting Russia’s deputy economy minister Sergei Storchak. The ADB was set up by Russia and Kazakhstan. It supports members of the Eurasian Economic Union.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Ahead of its accession to the Eurasian Economic Union later this year, domestic producers in Kyrgyzstan have started a campaign to try and persuade more people to buy locally made products, the 24.kg news agency reported.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – BISHKEK — Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev awarded Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev the Order of Manas (First Class), Kyrgyzstan’s highest honour, for helping to create the Eurasian Economic Union.
He flew to Astana to give Mr Nazarbayev the award on his 75th birthday, five days after the Kazakh leader ratified Kyrgyzstan’s accession into the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union.
“We feel a strong fraternal support from the Republic of Kazakhstan,” Mr Atambayev said, according to media.
Toktogul Kakcheckeyev, an executive director at the Association of Political Scientists of Kyrgyzstan think tank in Bishkek, explained.
“The Manas award was given by Almazbek Atambayev to Nursultan Nazarbayev because of Nazarbayev’s efforts to develop regional cooperation in terms of Eurasian economic community,” he said. “Originally it was Nazarbayev’s idea to launch regional economic cooperation.”
In 1994, shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union in a speech in Moscow, Mr Nazarbayev spoke rather nostalgically of creating a Eurasian Union. This has now materialised, or, at least a version of that vision.
Still, some observers have said that Mr Atambayev’s award to Mr Nazarbayev was a brazen attempt to curry favour with the most powerful leader in Central Asia.
And Kyrgyzstan has form with this. The Kyrgyz parliament can be relied upon, almost every year, to nominate Mr Nazarbayev for a Nobel Peace Prize for giving up the nuclear weapons that Kazakhstan inherited after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Mr Nazarbayev is only the twelfth recipient of a First Class Order of Manas in its 19 year history.
Other recipients include Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary- General.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JUNE 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Gazprom wants to raise the price that consumers in Kyrgyzstan pay for their gas, local media reported quoting the director-general of its Kyrgyz subsidiary, Bakyt Abildayev.
This is a particularly sensitive topic because of tense street protests in Yerevan, triggered by the Russian-owned Armenian electricity distributor which wants to raise prices.
“We cannot endlessly subsidize gas industry. I propose to develop a new pricing policy for [the next] three to five years,” Mr Abildayev said.
When Gazprom bought the Kyrgyz gas distribution network in 2013 it was bankrupt and badly needed investment. Gazprom paid a token $1 for the network and promised much needed investment and also to keep prices low. This pleased ordinary Kyrgyz and also the government. It was interpreted as a sweetener as the Kremlin extended its influence over Central Asia and brought Kyrgyzstan into its Eurasian Economic Union (EEU)
Now, though, the situation has changed. Kyrgyzstan has signed up to the EEU and cash is tighter in Russia. The collapse in energy prices has hit Russia hard.
Perhaps this is why, with their allegiance guaranteed, Russia is now looking to increase the price it charges consumers for electricity and gas in Armenia and Kyrgyzstan.
Kyrgyz politics often plays out on the street. If Mr Abildayev is serious about increasing gas prices in Kyrgyzstan, he should probably expect a reaction.
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(News report from Issue No. 237, published on June 25 2015)
JUNE 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s parliament approved a $150m loan from the Eurasian Development Bank (EDB) to build a north-south motorway across the country. The EBD is headquartered in Almaty and is bankrolled mainly by Russia and Kazakhstan. It concentrates on member states of the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union.
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(News report from Issue No. 237, published on June 25 2015)
JUNE 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – After 19 years of negotiations, Kazakhstan will join the World Trade Organisation (WTO) later this year after officially agreeing terms with the economic group.
President Nursultan Nazarbayev was quick to appear on TV to laud the success of the WTO entry .
“The WTO membership opens up new horizons for our econ- omy,” Mr Nazarbayev said on national TV.
Commodities make up most of Kazakhstan’s foreign trade, already carried at very low tariffs.
Tariffs are at the centre of the debate on Kazakhstan’s WTO membership.
It is also part of the Russia-led Customs Union, which morphed into the Eurasian Economic Union this year. This is, essentially, an old-school trade bloc which promotes free trade between members but puts up barriers to non-members. The other members of the Eurasian
Economic Union are Russia, Belarus and Armenia. Kyrgyzstan is on the brink of joining.
Even so, the WTO and Kaza- khstan appear to have found a way around this potential stumbling block, although the details are scant.
Kazakh industrials have also been reticent about joining the WTO.
“Our community is concerned that the accession into the WTO would seriously reduce the protection levels and cause the flooding of cheap goods into our markets, which would kill our production,” Rakhim Oshak- bayev, deputy chairman of the National Chamber of Entrepre- neurs, told Kazakh media.
The terms of the accession remain classified and analysts have questioned this secrecy. When it first applied to join the organisation in 1996, Kazakhstan was a poor country which had just emerged from the ashes of the Soviet Union. Now, the scenario is different.
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(News report from Issue No. 237, published on June 25 2015)
JUNE 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan will only see the benefits of its membership of the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union in 2017, media quoted economy minister Oleg Pankratov as saying. He said inflation will initially soar in Kyrgyzstan once it joins the economic group.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Doctors and other health workers will leave Kyrgyzstan for better paid jobs in Kazakhstan and Russia now that the country has joined the Kremlin- led Eurasian Economic Union, media quoted Kyrgyz health minister Talantbek Batyraliyev as saying. Kyrgyzstan’s health service is already in a precarious states.
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(News report from Issue No. 235, published on June 11 2015)
MAY 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s deputy economy minister, Garegin Melkonyan, said that although Armenia was a member of the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union, it wanted a deal with the EU that was as close as possible to an Association Agreement.
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(News report from Issue No. 234, published on June 4 2015)
