OCT. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – With the price of a barrel of oil falling to a four-year low, the Kazakh government has said it will review its national budget. Kazakhstan’s economy is propped up mainly by oil revenues. With oil revenues falling and with sanctions hitting Russia, Kazakhstan’s disposable income has shrunk.
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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)
OCT. 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president, Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked Abdrashit Zhukenov and Ali Komekbayev from their posts as the deputy chiefs of the Financial Police and Agency for Civil Service Affairs, part of a strategy to reorganise the agencies in charge of combating corruption.
Mr Nazarbayev has wanted the ministry of finance and the newly-created Agency for Civil Service Affairs and Anti- Corruption to take over managing corruption cases in a high-profile move aimed at grabbing the attention of international investors who are worried about corruption levels as much as people living inside Kazakhstan.
This year a number of high profile officials have been arrested and charged with corruption.
Muslim Omiraev, former deputy at the ministry of agriculture was arrested in December 2013 and sentenced to 10 years in prison (Oct. 16). Earlier in September, police arrested the former governor of Karaganda, Baurzhan Abdishev for corruption. He goes on trial in November.
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(News report from Issue No. 205, published on Oct. 22 2014)
SEPT. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s prosecutor-general ordered the exhumation of the body of former PM Zurab Zhvania and ally of former president Mikheil Saakashvili who died in 2005 allegedly of carbon monoxide poisoning from a faulty heater. Despite the official verdict of accidental death, suspicions around Zhvania’s death have persisted.
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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Bishkek ruled against plans by the government to increase fees on electricity and gas, media reported, argued for by reformers who have said that Kyrgyzstan needs to charge more for its utilities.The ruling is a blow for the government which has been working to modernise Soviet-era systems.
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(News report from Issue No. 202, published on Oct. 1 2014)
SEPT. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz PM Djoomart Otorbayev sacked two cabinet ministers, minister of culture Kamila Taliyeva and interior minister Abdyldy Suranchiyev, his first major reshuffle since taking over the job in March.
The sackings are a nod to public dissatisfaction with the government, with reports growing that many ministers are hanging on to their jobs by a thread.
But they may be less about improving the efficiency of government and more about preparations for next year’s parliamentary elections. With a winter energy crisis expected to put pressure on both President Almazbek Atambayev, affiliated to the Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan, and Mr Otorbayev, loosely associated with the socialist Ata-Meken party, dropping a few unpopular officials makes political sense.
Kyrgyz media reported that both the sacked ministers where disliked, making them easy scapegoats for failings across government but personnel changes are unlikely to spare the government public frustration if the winters are as cold as expected, especially with Kyrgyzstan’s power production struggling.
Ulugbek Erkeshev, a Kyrgyz political journalist, said he has seen it all before.
“At a time when they need to be working together as a government around the clock they are passing portfolios around,” he said.
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(News report from Issue No. 201, published on Sept. 24 2014)
SEPT. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – It looks like the Kazakh president’s office is becoming more commercially-minded.
Media reported that it has trademarked the Akorda, or the presidential palace, and a handful of other buildings in Astana.
One of the trade-marked images of the blue-domed Akorda show the sun rising behind it, rays of light shining over its roof.
It’s unclear, currently, just what the presidential administration plan to do with the trademark other than boost the image of the building itself.
The Akorda, which means White Horde, was built in 200 and lies at the centre of Astana, the city at the focus of President Nazarbayev’s vision for Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)
SEPT. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tension between Georgia’s President, Giorgi Margvelashvili, and its PM, Irakli Garibahvili appeared to bubble to the surface. Mr Margvelashvili accused Mr Garibashvili of thwarting his attempt to speak at the UN by planning his own address at the UN General Assembly. Growing tension between the presidency and the PM is important to monitor.
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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)
SEPT. 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Perhaps wanting an eye-catching policy to launch his campaign for next year’s parliamentary election, former Kyrgyz PM Feliks Kulov, a nationalist, has called for a referendum on renaming Kyrgyzstan as Kyrgyz El Republic, media reported. Mr Kulov said the suffix stan is an alien Persian word for country.
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(News report from Issue No. 200, published on Sept.17 2014)
SEPT. 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – On Independence Day, people in Bishkek crammed into cinemas to watch a film geared towards nation-building.
The film’s organisers think the film has a shot at the Best Foreign Film Category at the Oscars. Kurmandjan Datka, Queen of the Mountains received $1.5m from the threadbare republican budget and was part-organised by nationalist MP, Zhyldyz Zholdosheva.
The Kyrgyz-language picture, telling the story of a female clan ruler during the time of the Russian empire, was generally well received, although one viewer, 21-year old Maxat Dukenbayev, said it was some way short of Nomad, a Kazakh state-made epic with 25 times Kurmanjan Datka’s budget and featuring B-List Hollywood actors.
“That didn’t come close to an Oscar,” he said, standing outside Bishkek’s October Cinema.
Not that Nomad did either.
Still, Zholdosheva, who gained a reputation as an outspoken nationalist in the aftermath of ethnic violence between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in 2010 declared herself ready to win an Oscar.
Elsewhere, on a grassy stretch outside Bishkek’s Panfilov Park, scores of Kyrgyz families grilled skewered kebabs and took in national beer.
Kyrgyz films celebrating its independence, seemingly, are not for everyone.
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(News report from Issue No. 198, published on Sept. 3 2014)
AUG. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Cherie Blair, wife of ex-British PM Tony Blair, has negotiated a contract to advise Kazakhstan’s ministry of justice for three months for $200,000, the Daily Telegraph reported. Mr Blair has been an adviser to Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev since 2011.
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(News report from Issue No. 196, published on Aug. 20 2014)
