JUNE 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s authorities have deported 25 Chinese migrants for working illegally at an oil refinery in Tokmak in the north of the country after a fight with their Kyrgyz co-workers, media reported. The incident highlights lingering tensions between Chinese workers and locals in Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – From 2015, except for members of the Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU), migrant workers from the ex-Soviet Union will only be allowed to work in Russia if they carry a passport and not just an ID card. Kyrgyzstan wants to join the EaEU which includes Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in the south Russian region of Dagestan have agreed to rebuild a road that runs from Makhachkala on the Black Sea to Georgia, media reported. This is another signal relations between Georgia and Russia have improved since a brief war in 2008.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Highlighting Turkmenistan’s more international outlook, media reported that it would open an embassy in Georgia soon. Since Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov become president in 2007 Turkmenistan has looked to increase its international status. Georgia is part of a South Caucasus gas pipeline network that Turkmenistan wants to use to export to Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia confirmed the appointment of Tigran Sarkisyan, PM for six years until April, as its ambassador in the US. Mr Sarkisyan resigned in April because reforms to the pension system that his government had suggested were deeply unpopular.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Alongside Moldova and Ukraine, Georgia signed an important deal to integrate its economy further with the EU.
The Association Agreement is a major step towards Georgia’s end goal of becoming an EU member state.
Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili was under no illusion on the significance of the agreement. It was, he said, an historic moment for Georgia.
“Unofficially we applied for membership today. Officially, it depends on progress that we will make,” he said.
Georgia has been lobbying for membership of the EU and NATO for years. Former President Mikheil Saakashvili managed to antagonise Russia during his push to join the West. Perhaps the new government’s greatest achievement so far has been to pursue its pro-West agenda while also keeping relations with Russia amicable.
Importantly, signing the Association Agreement has the potential to rock relations with Russia. It was this deal, initially put forward in November last year, that Viktor Yanukovoch, then Ukraine’s president, declined to sign, triggering protests that lead to a civil war.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, visited Yerevan in a show of support for the Armenian government. Russia is Armenia’s main ally and the Armenian government wants to join the Kremlin-lead Eurasian Economic Union later this year. Pointedly, Mr Lavrov didn’t mention the Eurasian Economic Union during his trip.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Georgian rebel region of South Ossetia said that it now recognised the Luhansk People’s Republic as an independent state, media reported. Luhansk is a region in east Ukraine were pro-Russia separatists are fighting central government forces. South Ossetia declared independence in 2008 after a war between Russia and Georgia.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz agriculture accounts for around a fifth of GDP and just under half the country’s employment according to the country’s National Statistics Committee, yet many farmers say the sector is on its knees.
As Kyrgyzstan prepares for entry into the Eurasian Economic Union comprising Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia, discussions over farming’s future are only likely to intensify.
On June 12, Alibek Rakaev, Head of the Association of Pastoralists told journalists that meat production in the country was falling due to the prevalence of diseases that village vets have proven unable to diagnose or treat. Livestock farming was in a “critical condition”, he said.
Back in Soviet times Kyrgyzstan’s meat and dairy products were exported all over the Union, but neighbouring Kazakhstan now views Kyrgyzstan’s products with caution and has banned import of Kyrgyz milk and meat in the past. The Eurasian Economic Union has even tighter controls.
Poultry farmers might welcome membership, with high tariffs on non-Union imports potentially restricting the flow of Chinese chicken and eggs onto the domestic market, but for Kyrgyzstan’s crop-growers, Jomart Jumabekov, a member of the Public Advisory Board on the Ministry of Agriculture, said, closer integration with Russia and Kyrgyzstan means problems.
“I view the Customs Union negatively. Russian and Kazakh wheat and grains already dominate our market,” Mr Jumabekov told the Conway Bulletin. “With even fewer barriers to trade with these countries, we will stop growing even a small proportion of our own food. No-one will till the land.”
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Trade between Georgia and Russia increased by a third in the first five months of the year compared to the same period in 2013, Georgia’s statistics agency said. Relations between Georgia and Russia have improved recently. Russia has allowed Georgia to export wine, water and other products once again.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
