NOV. 21 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – In their latest effort to close opposition media, the Kazakh authorities asked the courts to label TV station K+ and the Respublika and Vzglyad newspapers as extremist and ban them. This year, in the wake of riots in the west of the country, the authorities have cracked down on media it views as troublesome.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 114, published on Nov. 23 2012)
Nov. 11 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Central Asia has increasingly become an economic battlefield with neighbouring nations competing for influence. China, Russia, the EU and the US all have major interests in the region. Now Japan has made a relatively bold move.
At a meeting in Tokyo with officials from the five Central Asia states, Japan’s foreign minister, Koichiro Gemba, pledged to invest $700m in the region.
Mr Gemba was vague on detail. He said that Japan’s main aim was to promote regional stability which would help promote peace in neighbouring Afghanistan.
He might be right of course, but no doubt Japan also has its eye on the region’s abundance of natural resources, in particular Kazakhstan’s supply of rare earth metals. These metals are needed in hi-tech industries, just the sort that sustains Japan’s economy.
Many countries have been vigorously searching for supplies of rare earths since China, which had produced around 90% of the world’s supply, said in 2010 it would reduce exports.
Earlier this month a joint Japanese-Kazakh plant opened in northern Kazakhstan producing rare earths. Japan is its main market. Japan’s pledge to invest $700m in Central Asia is likely to be connected to accessing the region’s natural resources.
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(News report from Issue No. 113, published on Nov. 16 2012)
NOV. 4 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kcell, Kazakhstan’s biggest mobile operator, plans to list on stock exchanges in London and Almaty by the end of 2012, media quoted sources as saying. Swedish mobile operator TeliaSonera is the main shareholder in Kcell.
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(News report from Issue No. 112, published on Nov. 9 2012)
OCT. 23 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s economy will only grow by 5.4% this year because of poor demand for its metals, the Kazakh minister for economic development, Erbolet Dosayev, said according to media reports. The Kazakh government had earlier hoped for economic growth in 2012 of around 7%.
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(News report from Issue No. 110, published on Oct. 26 2012)
OCT. 8 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Kazakh court convicted Vladimir Kozlov, a vocal opposition activist, of calling for a revolution and inciting social discord, and jailed him for 7.5 years. The sentence is linked to a deadly riot in Zhanaozen last year. The US government said the authorities were using the criminal justice system to silence its critics.
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(News report from Issue No. 108, published on Oct. 12 2012)
OCT. 2 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – US energy company ConocoPhillips will sell its stake in the Kashagan oil field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea, Kazakhstan’s energy minister Sauat Mynbayev, told reporters. The sale gives the Kazakh government the chance to buy a larger stake in the giant oil field.
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(News report from Issue No. 107, published on Oct. 5 2012)
SEP. 21 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked Aslan Musin as his chief of staff. In Mr Musin’s place, Mr Nazarbayev promoted the loyal PM Karim Masimov. No official reason was given for the change but many analysts believe that Mr Musin had become too powerful.
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(News report from Issue No. 106, published on Sep. 28 2012)
SEP. 10 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a 153-page report Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused Kazakhstan of breaching workers’ rights last year in the run-up to deadly riots on Dec. 16. HRW said the government and energy companies had abused workers’ right to protest. The energy companies refuted the allegations.
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(News report from Issue No. 104, published on Sep. 14 2012)
AUG. 28 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Surprising observers, a court in the southern Kazakh city of Taraz cleared human rights activist Vadim Kuramshin of extortion. Mr Kurashmin had faced 14 years in jail. He said the accusations had been politically motivated. Police arrested him in January during a crackdown against opposition activists.
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(News report from Issue No. 103, published on Aug. 31 2012)
AUG. 17 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police near Almaty killed nine suspected Islamic militants during a dawn raid, the prosecutor- general said. Last month President Nursultan Nazarbayev called on the security forces to do more to hunt down alleged militants after several died when a bomb they were preparing accidentally exploded.
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(News report from Issue No. 102, published on Aug. 24 2012)
