FEB. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia described NATO’s move to open a training base in Georgia as a provocation. NATO intends to open the base this year. Alexander Grushko, Russia’s envoy to NATO, said: “Emergence of NATO military facilities in Georgia is a step towards escalation of tension and worsening of regional security.”
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(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)
JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The German ambassador to Uzbekistan, Neithart Höfer-Wissing, officially confirmed that Germany was going to maintain its military base near Termez, south Uzbekistan, German media reported . A deal was made between the Uzbek and German government last year, although details were kept secret.
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(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)
JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The German ambassador to Uzbekistan, Neithart Höfer-Wissing, officially confirmed that Germany was going to maintain its military base near Termez, south Uzbekistan, German media reported. A deal was made between the Uzbek and German government last year, although details were kept secret.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)
FEB. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Iran accused Turkmen coastguards of shooting dead an Iranian fisherman in the Caspian Sea, a potentially dangerous flashpoint in this volatile area.
The English-language Tehran Times said that one of the Iranian fishing boasts was sunk after it came under fire and that one person died.
Perhaps more worrying was the next sentence in the state-owned newspaper.
“According to IRNA, Turkmenistan’s hostile behaviour toward Iran has been increased and the only Shia mosque in Ashgabat is on the verge of destruction,” it reported. IRNA is a state-owned Iranian language news agency.
It sounds as if Iran is spoiling for a fight.
Either way, Turkmenistan’s government immediately denied the accusation that its navy had killed an Iranian sailor. Instead, they said that they had arrested four fishermen for illegal fishing.
This is a curious story, made more curious by the Tehran Times’ line about the only Shia mosque in Ashgabat being under threat.
The Caspian Sea is a sensitive area. It is rich in hydrocarbons and also produces sturgeon whose eggs are sold and eaten as caviar. It is also bordered by five countries — Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Russia and Azerbaijan — with their own single minded agendas.
Flashpoints in the Caspian Sea, and bellicose language that accompany them, are worth monitoring.
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(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)
>>Russia pledges new gas infrastructure system>>
JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — On a trip to Bishkek, Alexei Miller, the CEO of Gazprom, said the Russian state-owned gas company would invest $500m into Kyrgyzstan’s gas network system over the next three years.
This is a massive investment by Russia into what is essentially its backyard, especially during these times of economic turbulence. Gas has become a form of diplomacy and control for the Kremlin and it wants to bring Kyrgyzstan closer into its hegemony.
“This is 1.7 times larger than originally planned,” media quoted Mr Miller as saying of the proposed investment plan. “All the planned works will be financed in full.”
Gazprom bought Kyrgyzstan’s gas monopoly for a symbolic $1 in 2013. This year the Kremlin has already earned credit for negotiating a deal between the Uzbek and the Kyrgyz authorities to supply gas to the south of Kyrgyzstan.
And influence over Bishkek is important for Russia. Over the past decade Kyrgyzstan has swung between supporting the West to looking towards the Kremlin. Now that the US military base outside Bishkek has been dismantled (it went last year) the Kremlin has upped its drive to pull Bishkek closer towards it.
Later this year, Kyrgyzstan plans to join the Kremlin-controlled Eurasian Economic Union. It has sold its gas system to Gazprom and has introduced various legislation that apes Russian laws and, many analysts say, curtails personal freedoms.
Russian dominance over Kyrgyzstan is growing.
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(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)
MO’YNOQ/Uzbekistan, FEB. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Sagynbai Murzayev is a strong and gentle Soviet-made man in his 70s. He used to be a fisherman in windswept Mo’ynoq, a town in Karakalpakstan which lies on the remote western fringe of Uzbekistan. Now he works several jobs and witnesses the Chinese influx.
Mo’ynoq once lay on the shores of the Aral Sea. This sea, though, shrunk rapidly because a Soviet irrigation system siphoned off its tributaries’ waters to feed giant cotton fields.
Left behind is a lunar desert of white dunes that locals call Aralkum (Aral’s Sands).
Murzayev works at the local museum of natural history and has witnessed the retreat from the beginning. His father was also a fisherman, his mother worked in a fishery. He now gathers most of his earnings by driving foreign guests to the sea shores. Most of the visitors are Chinese.
Since 2006 an energy consortium led by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has been exploring oil and gas deposits below the former seabed.
Although national Uzbek publications boast about Karakalpakstan’s growth as an energy-rich region, operations in the Ustyurt Plateau seem, to Murzayev at least, to proceed at a slow pace. The few Chinese workers camping on the shoreline are mainly after a rather different and rather unusual resource for Central Asia — shrimps.
Unexcited, Murzayev looked at a Chinese trawler coming ashore.
“The indiscriminate pillage of natural resources has already been proved to be detrimental for us,” he said. “We need to bring the sea back to life and not to scavenge its dead body.”
In the distance, the town’s crumbling homes are a symbol of the small economic advantages that this uncertain oil and gas bonanza can bring to the region. And all the while the fading memories of the local fisherman who used to work on the lake grow thinner and thinner.
>>By Gianluca Pardelli
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(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)
JAN. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Imams in south Kyrgyzstan urged people to boycott French goods, especially perfume, or at least counterfeit versions, which is stocked in markets. The boycott is in retaliation for the printing of the cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed by French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
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(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)
MARCH 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov flew to Anakara for talks with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, on cooperation in the energy sector. Media reported that Mr Erdogan wants to set up a grouping with Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan. This is likely to revolve around the South Caucasus energy corridor.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)
>>Russia has warned Georgia about getting too close to NATO>>
JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — NATO plans to open training facility in Georgia by the end of the year, a move certain to irritate Russia which has previously warned the Georgian government not to get too close to the Western military alliance.
Alexander Vershbow, NATO deputy secretary-general, announced the opening of the base on a trip to Tbilisi.
For Georgia, the decision by NATO to open a training centre is a major diplomatic coup. It is desperate to join the alliance and has been a keen supporter of its mission in Afghanistan. Georgia still has soldiers serving in Afghanistan.
As for NATO, the move is more risky. It doesn’t want to antagonise Russia but it also needs to look strong.
Over Ukraine, Russia and NATO are already engaged in something of a proxy war. NATO accuses Russia of sending weapons and soldiers to help pro-Russian rebels fight the Ukrainian forces. It is also considering arming the Kiev government forces.
It’s not entirely clear what the NATO training centre in Georgia will look like or what it will actually do. Relations between Georgia and Russia have steadily been improving since a war in 2008.
During the war, Russia forces roamed parts of Georgia and occupied military bases. Placing a base, even a training centre, in Georgia will move NATO onto the frontline.
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(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)
JAN. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Russian parliament ratified a new alliance with the Georgian rebel region of Abkhazia. The deal will increase Russia’s military presence in the region. Georgia denounced the deal as aggressive. Russia also plans to sign a similar pact with South Ossetia, another Georgian breakaway region.
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(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)
