Tag Archives: government

Kazakh president appoints Dariga to be deputy PM

SEPT. 11 2015, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed his daughter, Dariga Nazarbayeva, to be a deputy PM, triggering an avalanche of speculation that she was being lined up to succeed him.

The appointment caps a remarkable turnaround for Ms Nazarbayeva who in 2007 fell out with her father and was forced to relinquish her seat in parliament and her media business interests.

Analysts said that her appointment as deputy PM was significant.

“It does look like a sign of succession,” Nargis Kassenova, professor of International Relations at KIMEP University in Almaty.

“Now with no danger of Rakhat Aliyev coming back, there seems to be no serious constraint to keep her away from top executive positions.”

Ms Nazarbayeva had been married to Rakhat Aliyev who fled into exile in 2007 and set himself up in opposition to President Nazarbayev. He was later arrested and charged in Vienna with murdering two Kazakh bankers outside Almaty.

Mr Nazarbayev had wanted him extradited but this year, the day before he was to stand trial, Aliyev was found hanged in his prison cell.

The succession issue for President Nazarbayev has become one of his most pressing. The 75-year-old, who has ruled over Kazakhstan since its independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, has not yet named a successor, which has allowed rumours to swirl and instability to take root.

Ms Kassenova, the KIMEP professor, said that Ms Nazarbayeva’s promotion may already have been trailed when President Nazarbayev earlier this month spoke about the Asian model of democracy.

“This dynastic approach to power is probably what President Nazarbayev had in mind when he recently referred to our Asian traditions to explain a slow move to Western-style democracy,” she said.

Ms Nazarbayeva returned to parliament in the 2012 election and has since held the position of deputy speaker of parliament.

There are other potential rivals for power. These include PM Karim Massimov, defence minister Imangali Tasmagambetov and Timur Kulibayev, the former head of Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund and the husband of Mr Nazarbayev’s second daughter.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Norway backs Georgia

SEPT. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Norway’s foreign minister Boerge Brende visited Georgia to meet with President Giorgi Margvelshvili and PM Irakli Garibashili. In Tbilisi Mr Brende underlined Norway’s support for Georgia’s territorial integrity. Importantly for Georgia, Norway is a NATO country.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Senior Uzbek official talks of corruption blight

SEPT. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a conference in Tashkent this week, Deputy Premier Rustam Azimov said corruption and extortion were among the hurdles that private entrepreneurs face in Uzbekistan.

This is important because it is rare for government officials to admit that corruption blights Uzbekistan and its officials.

“Businesses in Uzbekistan are today experiencing a lot of problems related to the illegal interference in entrepreneurial activity. There is excessive bureaucracy, as well as bribery and extortion,” media quoted him as saying. Mr Azimov was speaking at national conference on the security forces’ role in reforming and diversifying the economy.

A Tashkent-based analyst said Mr Azimov’s comments may be a signal the government was about to launch an anti-corruption purge.

It may also be a way of deflecting problems that have hit Uzbekistan. Remittances have fallen by half and inflation is rising. Most of these problems are regional and linked to a weak Russian economy and a fall in oil prices, but the Uzbek government will want to shift responsibility.

Transparency International, the global anti-corruption watchdog, ranks Uzbekistan as one of the worst countries in the world for corruption.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Kazakhstan bans communist party

SEPT. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Almaty ordered the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, until a few years ago one of the only genuine opposition parties in the country, to disband permanently. Media reported that the Kazakh ministry of justice said the party had misrepre- sented its activities. In 2011, a few months before a parliamentary election in 2012, a court suspended the Communist Party.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Tajik hunt for fugitive minister

SEPT. 11 2015, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s security forces have been scouring rough countryside in a valley 150km from the capital Dushanbe for the country’s most wanted man, General Abduhalim Nazarzoda, a former deputy defence minister.

The authorities accuse Gen. Nazarzoda of masterminding a series of early morning attacks in Dushanbe and a police station at Vahdat, a town 10km away, on Sept. 4 that killed at least nine policemen and 13 gunmen.

In Dushanbe, the authorities blocked access to social media sites and ordered more soldiers to patrol along the streets.

Hoji Said, a local Dushanbe resident, summed up the tense atmosphere in the capital.

“I have not seen so many policemen in Dushanbe,” he said.

Still, despite the extra security, a World Cup football qualifier match between Tajikistan and Australia went ahead. Australia won 3-0.

Gen. Nazarzoda was one of the leaders of the Tajik United Opposition, a coalition that fought against the government in a civil war in the mid-1990s. He fled the country but returned after a UN- brokered peace deal ensured handed him a role in the government.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Kazakh government ditches petrol price controls

SEPT. 4 2015, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh government scrapped petrol price controls, another major admission that the market rather than the state is better placed to direct its economy.

Government officials blamed the volatility in foreign exchange markets for scrapping price controls on petrol which immediately jumped in price by around 40%.

Pressured by low oil prices, rising inflation and the depressed value of the Russian rouble, the Kazakh Central Bank released the tenge from its US dollar peg last month. It fell 23% in one day and is now trading at an all-time low of around 262/$1 which made petrol excessively cheap.

Deputy PM Bakhytzhan Sagintayev was handed the task of explaining the new policy to journalists.

“Having studied all possible options and discussed the issue with market players, we decided there should be a flexible pricing model given the ongoing volatility at the FX market,” he said. “The Government has decided to stop regulating prices for AI-92 and AI-93 petrol.”

In Almaty, Kazakhstan largest city, the effect was immediate. Queues snaked out of petrol stations as drivers rushed to fill their tanks.

Guldariya Iskakova, an accountant, summed up the feeling of people in Almaty about the petrol price rises. “It is awful. We are now seriously thinking to use public bus,” she said. “Our expenses have increased several times. The prices for petrol increased by 20 tenge in just one day.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)

Georgian TV channel cuts talk shows

AUG. 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The owners of the Imedi TV channel in Georgia cancelled two popular talk shows, triggering accusations that they had bowed to pressure from the ruling Georgian Dream coalition. Opponents of Georgian Dream say that it is intimidating criticalmedia.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Georgian PM sacks foreign minister

SEPT. 1 2015, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili sacked his foreign minister in a cabinet reshuffle that once again promoted people close to his own political mentor, Bidzina Ivanishvili.

Giorgi Kvirikashvili was shifted to the foreign ministry from the economy ministry and Tbilisi’s deputy mayor Dimitri Kumsishvili took over the economy ministry brief. Both men had previously worked at Cartu Bank, Mr Ivanishavili’s private bank. Mr Garibashvili, the PM, also worked at Cartu Bank.

Opponents of PM Garibashvili said that he was just doing his master’s bidding by replacing Tamar Beruchashvili, who had disagreed with him publicly on some policies, as the foreign minister but he said the changes were linked to a shift in policy direction.

“The government focuses on economic development and employment. This should also determine our foreign policy,” he said .

Korneli Kakachia, a professor of political science at Tbilisi State University and director of the Georgian Institute of Politics, told The Bulletin that Mr Ivanishvili single-handedly decides what happens in government.

“Mr Ivanishvili only trusts insiders with whom he has worked. That is why Cartubank employees have a privileged position,” he said.

This is a widely held view. Earlier this year, the anti-corruption watchdog Transparency International said they were concerned that Mr Ivanishvili wanted to promote people who worked at Cartu Bank to prominent government positions.

“A pattern can be detected of individuals who were formerly employed by companies associated with Bidzina Ivanishvili being appointed to senior positions in the public service,” it said in April.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Constitution referendum in Armenia likely by end of year

SEPT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia is likely to hold a referendum in either November or December on constitutional amendments that would transfer power from the president to parliament, a senior member of the ruling HHK group told media.

This is clearest indication yet that a referendum on a new constitution, which the main opposition parties have said is designed to keep President Serzh Sargsyan’s grip on power when he leaves the presidency in 2018, is more than likely this year.

Vahram Baghdasaryan, leader of the HHK group, said: “If not in November, then in the beginning of December.”

This important because of the potentially destabilising impact of a referendum. Widespread street protests against a proposed increase in electricity prices in June showed just had fragile Armenia had become. Now the main opposition groups have pledged to turn the referendum into a de facto vote of confidence in the government and Mr Sargsyan.

Under the current constitution, Mr Sargsyan has to leave the presidency after two consecutive terms. He has said that he will comply with this stipulation but he has also said that he wants to transform Armenia into a parliamentary democracy.

His opponents say that he just trying to organise a power grab from inside parliament and that he wants to continue to run the country.

Armenia’s parliament is currently debating the constitutional changes. The ruling HHK group has said it is prepared to offer concessions to some of Armenia’s disparate opposition groups on the constitutional reform package in exchange for support.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)

Kazakhstan pressures free media

SEPT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The New York-based Human Rights Watch criticised Kazakhstan’s commitment to free speech after it ordered the independent-minded ADAM magazine to be suspended for three months for failing to publish copies in both Russian and Kazakh. The authorities closed down its predecessor ADAM Bol in 2014.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)