AUG. 14 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh police launched a murder investigation after discovering 11 bodies hacked to death in a gorge near Almaty, media reported. Amongst the dead were a well-regarded park ranger and his wife. This is the second mass killing in Kazakhstan this year. In May, 14 soldiers were found shot dead in their outpost near the Chinese border.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 101, published on Aug. 17 2012)
AUG. 17 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – At the Olympic Games in London, Kazakhstan wanted to beat their previous best medals haul of three golds from both Atlanta in 1996 and Sydney in 2000. They did, easily, with seven gold medals in cycling, weightlifting, long jump and boxing.
Kazakhstan was placed twelfth in the rankings, with the same gold medal haul as Australia. For the others, the Games were less successful.
Turkmenistan failed to win a medal and one of its boxing referees was sent home after
failing to stop a one-sided fight. An Uzbek gymnast faced even greater humiliation after she was disqualified for doping. Uzbekistan did win one gold medal in the men’s wrestling. There were no golds for either Kyrgyzstan or Tajikistan, although a Tajik woman won a boxing bronze.
Azerbaijan had talked up their boxing hopes before the Games but the best it could manage was a bronze medal. They also had one coach sent home for cheating. In wrestling Azerbaijan won two golds along with another two silver and three bronze medals.
Georgia won its gold medal in judo . Neighbouring Armenia won three medals, but no gold.
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(News report from Issue No. 101, published on Aug. 17 2012)
AUG. 2 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan, Central Asia’s biggest economy, cut its interest rate to 5.5% to try and stimulate growth. Emerging economies around the world have been fighting stalling inflation with interest rate cuts. This was Kazakhstan’s fourth rate cut in 2012. It comes into effect on Aug. 6.
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(News report from Issue No. 099, published on Aug. 3 2012)
JULY 23 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Kazakhstan arrested an army officer for allegedly shooting two other officers during an argument, media reported. This year attention has focused on bullying within the Kazakh army after the murder of 14 soldiers at a remote outpost in May and, in a separate incident, the mass desertion by conscripts.
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(News report from Issue No. 098, published on July 27 2012)
JULY 11 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The deputy head of Russia’s air force, Major-general Pavel Kurachenko, said Kazakhstan and Russia will sign a deal to integrate their air defence systems before the end of the year, media reported. Russia has been trying to set up an integrated air defence system over the past few years.
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(News report from Issue No. 096, published on July 13 2012)
JUNE 27 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Media in Kazakhstan reported that prosecutors were to charge several detained opposition activists, including Vladimir Kozlov who heads the banned Alga! party, with plotting a revolution. No official statement has yet been made. A deadly riot in the town of Zhanaozen in December triggered a crackdown by the authorities against the opposition.
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(News report from Issue No. 094, published on June 29 2012)
JUNE 15 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh PM Karim Massimov said that Russia would be allowed to continue using the Baikonur launch site in the south of the country to send rockets into space. Kazakhstan had suspended launches from Baikonur because of a row over debris from space rockets littering areas in northern Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 093, published on June 22 2012)
JUNE 19 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Eleven Kazakh army conscripts deserted their outpost on the border with China, allegedly because of bullying, media reported. The conscripts were found the next day but this was the second recent incident concerning the Kazakh military on the Chinese border. In May, 14 soldiers were murdered in their outpost.
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(News report from Issue No. 093, published on June 22 2012)
JUNE 4 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in western Kazakhstan convicted 34 people of instigating a riot that killed 15 people in the town of Zhanaozen in December. The trial was one of the most politically sensitive in Kazakhstan’s post- Soviet history. Of the 34 people convicted, 13 were sent to prison.
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(News report from Issue No. 091, published on June 8 2012)
JUNE 6 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – China had a gift for its Central Asia partners who attended the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation summit in Beijing on June 7.
It had set up a new $10b fund through its Export-Import Bank to loan to its neighbours. Of course there are strings attached and the fund will buy China yet more impact in the region.
It already has a huge amount of clout, much of the region’s energy resources heads east and rarely a week passes without new deal being announced, but China still clearly wants more from Central Asia.
The first big deal announced by China from its new fund was a $1.1b loan to help pay for a refit of its refinery near Atyrau in western Kazakhstan, media reported.
Reuters published figures that showed just how deeply China has invested over the past few years. According to Kazakhstan, China has invested $15b into the country since 1991, a tenth of all foreign investment. Roughly $10b of that, though, has come since 2008 and now, according to Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev about 20% of all its energy exports will flow to China.
The rest of Central Asia has also seen a massive boost in Chinese investments over the past few years, a trend that looks set to continue.
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(News report from Issue No. 091, published on June 8 2012)
