JAN. 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan cut gas supplies to Russia, potentially inflaming relations between the two neighbours. SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company, said it had suspended gas flowing along a pipeline to Russia because of construction work. Importantly it didn’t give an expected re-start date.
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(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)
JAN. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek officials flew to Moscow to attend an inter-government committee on economic cooperation. At the meeting they signed a deal to improve relations and encourage cross-border investment. This is more significant than usual as, last month, Uzbekistan ratified a deal to join a CIS free trade zone.
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(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)
JAN. 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian officials accused Russia of pinching territory by shifting its border 11km inside the disputed region of Abkhazia. Russia recognises the independence of Abkhazia which it supported in a brief war in 2008. Georgia says Abkhazia is still part of its sovereign territory.
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(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)
JAN. 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Reports from the Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan border said tension remained high between the two sides following a shootout that injured several soldiers earlier this month. Radio Free Europe also reported that Kyrgyzstan had called up reservists living in the area for a three day military exercise.
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(News report from Issue No. 168, published on Jan. 22 2014)
JAN. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — SOCAR, Azerbaijan’s state-owned energy company, is considering buying a network of petrol stations in Turkey, media reported. Media said it was eyeing up the Petrol Ofisi filling stations, owned by Austria’s OMV, the largest network in Turkey. If the sale does materialise it will be one of SOCAR’s biggest overseas investments.
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(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)
JAN. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Border guards from Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan fired at each other in a relatively rare skirmish. Several soldiers from both sides were injured in the firefight, media reported, and Kyrgyzstan later recalled its ambassador from Dushanbe. Tension has been escalating along the Kyrgyz-Tajik border for months.
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(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)
JAN. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Highlighting improved relations between Georgia and Russia, Airzena Georgian Airways will resume flights to Sochi in time for the start of the Winter Olympic Games next month. Georgian Airways plans to fly twice a week from Tbilisi to the resort town on the Black Sea coast.
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(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)
JAN. 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a speech at a military parade, Uzbek President Islam Karimov said the withdrawal of NATO soldiers from Afghanistan would increase tension along the Uzbek-Afghan border and could give Islamic militants the chance to attack. NATO soldiers are planning on withdrawing steadily through 2014.
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(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)
JAN. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Provence, southern France, ruled that Mukhtar Ablyazov, the former chairman of Kazakhstan’s BTA Bank, can be extradited to Russia or Ukraine to face various money laundering charges.
This is a clear victory for the Kazakh authorities over the human rights lobby and they will be quietly celebrating in Astana and the Akorda, President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s palace.
Ultimately the Kazakh authorities want Ablyazov extradited to Kazakhstan to face charges of funding terrorism and plotting a revolution. Shifting him from a prison in southern France to either Moscow or Kiev is, literally and figuratively, a move in the right direction for Kazakh prosecutors.
It also underlines their determination to hunt down enemies of the state.
After the collapse of BTA Bank in 2009, Ablyazov fled Kazakhstan and set himself up in London in opposition to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.
In 2012, Ablyazov lost a civil case against the Kazakh government in London. The British court ordered him to pay millions in damages and sentenced him to 22 months in prison for perjury. Ablyazov fled, again, and was eventually arrested by French police in southern France in July last year.
In Russia and Ukraine, Ablyazov faces charges of money laundering . His supporters, though, say the main threat is being bounced along to Kazakhstan. They have said that because Kazakhstan had no extradition treaty with France it has had to work with prosecutors in Russia and Ukraine to propel their man east.
A final decision on Ablyazov’s extradition destination and date will be taken later this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)
JAN. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in France ruled that Mukhtar Ablyazov, a Kazakh opposition leader, could be extradited to either Russia or Ukraine to face money laundering charges. Mr Ablyazov’s lawyers had argued that the authorities in Russia and Ukraine will simply hand him over to Kazakhstan where they said he would face an unfair trial.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 167, published on Jan. 15 2014)
