SEPT. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian president Vladimir Putin and Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev are expected to sign a deal soon that will allow the movement of arms between the two countries more easily, media reported. The agreement is designed to increase arms trade between Kazakhstan and Russia as well as deepen military integration.
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(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
SEPT. 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan has hired Citi, JP Morgan and HSBC to arrange a potential new Eurobond, Reuters quoted sources close to the deal as saying. The sources told Reuters the Eurobond was due to be denominated in US dollars but didn’t put a value on it.
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(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
SEPT. 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The 13th summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) will be held in Dushanbe on Sept. 11 – 12.
Russia and China lead the SCO, a group that has regional security and economic development at its core. The other members are Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
The summit is expected to focus on deepening security ties and the possibility of expanding the organisation to include Afghanistan, India, Mongolia and Pakistan by next year. On Aug. 24, the SCO held its largest ever joint military drills to date in China’s Inner Mongolia province.
With Russia accused of arming rebels in Ukraine and the US-led NATO planning to enlarge by including Australia as a member, enlargement of the SCO would come at a sensitive time. As the only regional organisation to include both Russia and China, the SCO’s profile has grown over the years. Moscow and Beijing appear, though, to have different views on the future of the group.
In Bishkek this summer, China promoted its Silk Road Economic belt concept. This concept, focused on infrastructure investment and trade protection, seems to run counter to Russia’s own Eurasian integration efforts via the protectionist, China-exclusive Eurasian Economic Union.
The Kremlin has also reportedly persistently blocked the development of an SCO bank, preferring the organisation to focus on security matters, where it is closer to parity with China.
Both are said to be cautious towards any expansion that might dilute their respective influences, but acknowledge the need for the SCO to grow in order to relevant.
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(News report from Issue No. 199, published on Sept. 10 2014)
SEPT. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh security forces are searching for a canister of radioactive cesium 137 after it was lost while being transported in the western region of Mangistau, media reported. The canister was being transported by car — it’s unclear where to or why — when it was lost or stolen.
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(News report from Issue No. 198, published on Sept. 3 2014)
AUG. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Fighting between ethnic Kazakhs and ethnic Uzbeks in a village in the south of the country injured at least two people, media reported. The authorities quickly issued a statement denying that the fighting was motivated by ethnicity although media reports strongly suggested that this was the trigger.
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(News report from Issue No. 198, published on Sept. 3 2014)
AUG. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Reports from the regions said that queues up to a kilometre-long have been forming outside petrol stations as motorist try to re-fuel their cars.
In the northern city of Uralsk only four of 11 petrol stations were serving motorists without vouchers.
A combination of low refining capacity while upgrades are made; the devaluation of the tenge currency, which has made imports more expensive; restrictions on the quantity of imports have reduced petrol supplies.
Officials have said that they are working to bring the situation under control but frustrations threaten to bubble over.
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazrbayev relies, to some degree, on the people becoming increasingly rich and comfortable for his popularity. If this starts to reduce, or become visibly impaired, his popularity may drop.
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(News report from Issue No. 198, published on Sept. 3 2014)
Petrol shortages have worsened in Kazakhstan over the past few months.
AUG. 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Eurasian Economic Union (EaEU) is still a few months from coming into existence and yet Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev is already threatening to quit the Russia-led alliance.
In an interview with a local TV station, Mr Nazarbayev said he wouldn’t be afraid of quitting the EaEU if the group was damaging the national interests.
“Our independence for which our forefathers fought is our greatest asset,” he said. “First, we will never sacrifice our independence. Second, we will do everything to defend it.”
Mr Nazarbayev’s comments are important as they come against the backdrop of fighting in Ukraine, where Russia is accused of supporting pro-separatist forces. Kazakh officials have become increasingly nervous that the Russia dominated north of the country may look to secede with Russia’s support.
Although economics and business interests weren’t mentioned by My Nazarbayev, there was also a clear underlying message.
Kazakhstan’s increased association with Russia has hurt it economically. Russia’s economy is so important for Central Asia that if it is impinged, this economic malaise is felt further down the chain.
The Eurasian Economic Union will come into place in 2015 and will be a direct descendent of the current Customs Union. Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus are members Customs Union. Kyrgyzstan and of the Armenia plan to join the group in the next few months.
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(News report from Issue No. 198, published on Sept. 3 2014)
AUG. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Depicting a more modern, technologically advanced side of Kazakhstan, officials have unveiled a plan to build a plant near Karaganda that will produce food for astronauts based on mare’s milk. Toregeldy Sharmanov, head of the Kazakh Academy of Nutrition, told media that mare’s milk was particularly nutritious.
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(News report from Issue No. 198, published on Sept. 3 2014)
ALMATY/Kazakhstan, SEPT. 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The conversation, and the coffee, flowed freely in this café in the centre of Kazakhstan’s financial capital that is popular with students and intelligentsia types. The language, too, was fluid and the speakers switch causally between Kazakh and English.
Amantai, a 21-year old student, had been listening to the conversation.
“I’ve heard you guys speak interchangeably in Kazakh and English,” he said. “You haven’t used a single word of Russian.”
Russian didn’t have a place at this table of young, educated Kazakhs. In the wider context, as Kazakhs grow more aware of their statehood and less attached to the notion of the Soviet Union, the Russian language is being displaced.
Amantai was from a village outside of Almaty. He had moved to study economics at the Kazakh- British Technical University. He had studied hard to reach the level of English that was required to enroll.
Even though for Amantai Kazakh was not necessary to study economics he still preferred to use it in public over Russian.
Another of the young Kazakh men sitting around the table explained.
“It’s up to the new generation to turn our mother tongue into a language that can be spoken in every instance of one’s life,” he said.
A decade ago this scene would not have unfolded in Almaty. Until recently Russian dominated Kazakhstan’s business and political elite. Kazakh was spoken just by villagers and not in the cities.
That, though, has changed with President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s various nation building schemes and with the influx of people to Almaty and other cities.
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(News report from Issue No. 198, published on Sept. 3 2014)
SEPT. 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Under an amnesty declared earlier this year by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, people can legalise companies and cash held offshore without being taxed over the next 12 months, media reported. Mr Nazarbayev wants to bring an estimated $10b into the economy through the amnesty.
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(News report from Issue No. 198, published on Sept. 3 2014)
