DEC. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan and China completed a currency swap deal which they had arranged earlier in the year. Under the deal, China will give Tajikistan 3b yuan (around $470m) in exchange for the equivalent in Tajik somoni. The two sides said the deal would facilitate bilateral trade but it is also a way for China to give Tajikistan some hard currency.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Swedish court sentenced Yury Zhukovsky, an Uzbek national, to 18 years in prison for the attempted murder of dissident Obid-kori Nazarov in February 2012, in a case that intensified attention on Uzbekistan’s human rights record.
The prosecutor in the trial accused the Uzbek government of ordering the murder of Mr Nazarov who had fled Uzbekistan to Sweden in 2006. He had been a popular cleric who preached against the government.
The judge, though, said that it was not possible to rule on who may have ordered the murder.
Zhukovsky was caught on CCTV camera in a shop in the remote northern town of Stromsund hours before Mr Nazarov was shot in the head with a revolver. Mr Nazarov survived the attempted murder but has been left with brain damage.
Human rights groups have criticised Uzbekistan record. They have said that the government pursues its enemies abroad.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a business forum in Beijing, Kazakh and Chinese officials said they reached agreements worth $10b that will increase cooperation between state-owned companies. One of the deals involved the sale of 51% of KMG International, a subsidiary of Kazmunaigas, to a Chinese energy company.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan and Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev met in Bern to discuss peace plans for the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh, their first meeting since 2014. There was no sign of any tangible progress from the Bern talks.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – South Korea opened its first embassy in Georgia, highlighting Georgia’s increased prominence on the world stage and also, perhaps, South Korea’s rising interest in the South Caucasus. S.Korea also gave Georgia’s foreign ministry computer equipment worth $100,000.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The trial has started of Valery Permyakov, a Russian conscript accused of killing seven members of the same family in January. The murders shocked Armenia and strained relations with Russia. Russia keeps a major military base in Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – After visiting Ashgabat for talks with Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said he would buy 200,000 tonnes of wheat from Turkmenistan for the 2015-16 season. The deal would make Turkmenistan one of the main exporters of wheat to Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan talked with Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov. The talks had been planned earlier in the year but their timing was important as Mr Erdogan is trying to build support for Turkey in its row with Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US and Europe piled more pressure on Azerbaijan over its human rights record. New Jersey representative Chris Smith introduced a bill in the US Congress that would ban Azerbaijani officials from receiving US visas. The Council of Europe also said it would check whether Azerbaijan is compliant with the European Convention on Human Rights.
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(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)
DEC. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Afghanistan has signed an electricity supply deal with Uzbekistan which is 10% larger than last year to meet rising demand, a source at the state- owned Uzbekenergo told Russian media. Uzbekistan is an important supplier of electricity to northern Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)
