JULY 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Human rights lobby group Amnesty International released a report accusing the Kazakh government of using torture on prisoners. The report focused on people detained during the 2011 clashes between protesters and police in Zhanaozen, west Kazakhstan. The Kazakh government has previously refuted allegations of torture.
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(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JULY 15 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Kazakhstan have vowed to improve the reputation and effectiveness of the police. They have introduced fitness and aptitude tests and prosecuted various senior police officers for bribe taking.
According to a new survey by the Berlin-based NGO Transparency International (TI), though, they have a long way to go.
In TI’s annual Global Corruption Barometer, more than half of the Kazakh interviewees said they had a paid a bribe to the police in the past year.
Of course there were other services that also rated poorly for bribe taking, including so-called land services, medical services, the judiciary and education. In each case over a quarter of the respondents said they had paid a bribe but illegal payments to the police were noticeably worse.
Perhaps more worrying for the Kazakh authorities was the answer to the question on whether interviewees felt corruption had gotten worse or better over the past year. Nearly 35% answered that corruption in Kazakhstan had worsened in the past 12 months compared with 21% who said it had improved.
For their global corruption barometer, TI surveyed 1,000 people in each of 107 countries between September 2012 and March this year. The results are by no means definitive but, for Kazakhstan at least, they do make for an interesting, and important, snapshot.
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(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JULY 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Italy ruled that the extradition to Kazakhstan of the wife of former Kazakh banker Mukhtar Ablyazov, Alma Shalabayeva, from Rome in May was illegal. Questions have been asked about the relationship between Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Italian officials who sanctioned the extradition.
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(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JULY 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan celebrated the 15th anniversary of its capital city, Astana. Astana Day, as it has been dubbed, coincides with celebrations for President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s birthday. His critics say that he is creating a cult of personality and that Astana has been built in his image.
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(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JULY 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The chairman of Kazakh bank BTA, Erik Balapanov, resigned. The Kazakh government owns a majority stake in BTA bank, which it rescued from collapse during the 2008/9 global financial crisis. Mr Balapanov had been chairman of BTA Bank, which has debts of around $12b, since August 2012.
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(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JULY 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Netherlands-registered Venus Airport Investments BV will pay out $3b tenge ($19.7m) in dividends to its shareholders on profits from its sole ownership of Almaty International Airport, media reported. Venus Airport Investments bought Almaty airport in 2011. It is linked to members of the Kazakh elite.
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(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JULY 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — British companies signed deals in Kazakhstan worth $1b during PM David Cameron’s two-day trip, local media reported. This was the first trip to Kazakhstan by a serving British PM. Most of the deals agreed were in the energy and mining sectors.
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(News report from Issue No. 142, published on July 8 2013)
JULY 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — British PM David Cameron completed a two-day trip to Kazakhstan. This was the first trip to Kazakhstan by a serving British PM and concluded with reportedly $1b worth of deals between the two countries. Human rights groups said that Mr Cameron should have done more to press concerns on Kazakhstan’s rights record.
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(News report from Issue No. 142, published on July 8 2013)
JULY 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Czech car-maker Skoda will start producing its saloon car the Octavia in Kazakhstan from this month, media reported, highlighting the Kazakh public’s growing demand for new cars. Skoda, owned by Germany’s Volkswagen, produces cars at a plant in Ust-Kamenogorsk, eastern Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 142, published on July 8 2013)
JULY 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Consumer prices in Kazakhstan rose 0.3% in June, according to the Statistics Committee. This means that for the 12-months to the end of June inflation measured 5.9%, continuing a general price rise slow-down. Inflation for the 12 months to the end of February measured 7%.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 142, published on July 8 2013)
