Tag Archives: government

Georgia picks CBanker

MARCH 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Central Bank picked Koba Gvenetadze, a former IMF banker, to be its chief, replacing Giorgi Kadagidze whose term finished in February. The following day, President Giorgi Margvelashvili approved Mr Gvenetadze’s 7-year term at the Bank. Georgia’s economy has been under increased pressure from the falling value of the lari and rising inflation linked to a fall in oil prices and recession in Russia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Sex blackmail scandal rocks Georgia

MARCH 11/14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – TBILISI — Georgian government officials and opposition MPs appear to have been the target of a blackmail plot after a series of sex tapes were posted online.

Videos of two Georgian women MPs and two men from the ruling Georgian Dream coalition, apparently having extramarital sex, were uploaded to Youtube.

The videos were taken down quickly but not before news of their existence had gone viral. Georgia’s conservative society was both outraged by the videos of the officials having sex and also at the breach of privacy.

Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili said the security agencies had detained five people in connection with the plot.

“All the law enforcement agencies are involved in the investigation, we need to put an end to terrorising the society with such videos once and for all,” he said.

News reports said the originators of the videos contacted their targets before uploading the videos, demanding that they resign from their posts.

For Georgians the emergence of the videos is a reminder of the old- school Soviet- style pressure techniques which they thought they had left behind.

It’s unclear if the blackmail plot is linked to a parliamentary election planned for later this year.

Privacy, surveillance, and blackmail are all hot issues with the upcoming elections next October. The current government campaigned strongly against surveillance of citizens and politicians before they came to power in 2012.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Kazakh President’s grandson quits as Astana deputy mayor

MARCH 16 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Nurali Aliyev, grandson of Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev, quit his position as deputy mayor of Astana to pursue his business goals, a move that draws him away from the succession debate.

His decision came just days before a parliamentary election, in which his mother, President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s eldest daughter Dariga, was standing for re-election.

“I’m looking to work in business development in a financial niche,” media quoted 31-year-old Mr Aliyev as saying. “For many years, before working in the akimat, I was engaged in business.”

Mr Aliyev is the son of Dariga Nazarbayeva and the late Rakhat Aliyev, who was found dead in a Vienna prison in February 2015. He had been charged with the murder of two bankers at Kazakhstan’s Nurbank in 2006.

Prior to being appointed as deputy mayor of Astana in 2014, Mr Aliyev had worked in Kazakhstan’s banking, telecoms and transport sectors.

But it was his shock appointment in December 2014 to one of the Kazakh capital’s most important positions, that threw him into the public limelight and set off rumours that he was being groomed for the top job.

His grandfather, Pres. Nazarbayev, is 75 years old and has said that he is nearing retirement. What he hasn’t done is set out a clear succession schedule.

One of the theories put forward after Mr Aliyev’s appointment as deputy mayor of Astana was that his mother would take over the top job in four or five years time and, effectively, keep the seat warm for her son to take over when he was old enough. The Kazakh constitution states that the minimum age for a president is 40.

Other than citing a preference to resume a business career, Mr Aliyev didn’t say why he was quitting as deputy mayor of Astana.

What his resignation definitely has done, though, is set off renewed Kazakh presidential succession speculation.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 272, published on March 18 2016)

Uzbek leader creates new ministry

MARCH 4 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek president Islam Karimov officially appointed Aziz Abdukhakimov as minister for labour, a new ministry formed out of the ministry for labour and social protection. Mr Abdukhakimov had previously been the minister for labour and social protection. It is unclear why Mr Karimov wanted to change the name of the ministry.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)

Turkmen President sacks more senior government officials

MARCH 5 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Over the past few weeks Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has sacked and reprimanded several government officials accusing them of corruption and providing fake data, a shake up that may betray his frustration with slowing economic and social projects.

The latest officials to feel Mr Berdymukhamedov’s wrath were Akmyrat Mamedov, head of the country’s Statistics Committee, and Batyr Halliyev, the meteorological service. They were both sacked for “short- comings at work”.

And apparently signalling that more sackings were likely, Mr Berdymukhamedov said the government was not immune from corruption. He cited the case of former deputy PM, Baimurat Khodzhamukhamedov, who was found guilty last year of taking bribes of $1.5m.

He went on to harshly criticise the head of the State Commodity and Raw Materials Exchange, a local market for commodities.

Just days earlier, Mr Berdymukhamedov had reshuffled government officials in the National Security Service and the Border Service.

In countries as reclusive as Turkmenistan, government appointments give an insight on the political equilibrium within the country.

Mr Berdymukhamedov is known for publicly shaming officials for incompetence and strongly advocating against corruption. Opposition activists abroad, though, say that these charges are generally fabricated to crack down on dissenting or inefficient bureaucrats.

A regional economic crisis has hit government budgets across the region. Although reclusive and not given to releasing anything other than the most positive economic data, information leaking out of Turkmenistan suggests that this downturn has hit it hard too. Currency controls and a deferment of government salaries have all been muted.

The mass sackings is another signifier that all is not well at Mr Berdymukhamedov’s court.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 271, published on March 11 2016)

Turkmen President reshuffles government

MARCH 2 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov replaced the heads of the National Security Service and the Border Service, key government positions. Obstentiously the changes were made for health reasons and for a job transfer. Mr Berdymukhamedov has been increasingly vocal about improving border security with Afghanistan where the Taliban have become increasingly powerful.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 270, published on March 4 2016)

Uzbek President creates deputy khokims

MARCH 3 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek president Islam Karimov has created the position of deputy khokim across the countries regions in a move apparently aimed at reducing the power of the main khokims, RFE/RL reported. Khokims are powerful regional governors who are centrally appointed. They control swathes of the country.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 270, published on March 4 2016)

Azerbaijan’s SOFAZ drops 10%

MARCH 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Assets held by SOFAZ, Azerbaijan’s state oil fund dropped by 9.5% in 2015 to $33.6b. SOFAZ earns cash from oil and gas sales and transit fees. It spends on various social projects and has also been buying up manat to support it against the US dollar. The drop in SOFAZ’s net worth reflects the economic downturn and slump in global oil prices.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 270, published on March 4 2016)

Armenia’s President appoints new energy minister

MARCH 1 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan appointed Levon Yolyan as his new energy minister. Mr Yolyan, who had been deputy head of the Control Chamber which holds various government agencies to account, replaces Yervand Zakharyan.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 270, published on March 4 2016)

Azerbaijan drops currency tax

FEB. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Azerbaijani parliament formally dropped a plan to impose a 20% tax on all deals in foreign currencies. It voted to drop the bill, which had passed earlier in the year, after President Ilham Aliyev refused to sign it. The motive for the bill had been to protect Azerbaijan’s manat currency which has lost around half its value but critics said it was unfair and unworkable. Low oil prices have hit Azerbaijan hard. It is reliant on oil to earn export revenue.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)