APRIL 3 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian forces killed a Kazakh national during a raid on suspected Islamic extremists in Dagestan, a republic in Russia’s restive North Caucasus, media reported. Links to radicals in the north Caucasus have contributed to an increasingly active Islamic extremist movement in western Kazakhstan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 082, published on April 6 2012)
MARCH 22 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The boorish fictional character Borat continues to undermine the serious, grown-up image that Kazakhstan wants to project. Officials in Kuwait accidentally played Borat’s spoof anthem featuring lyrics about the cleanliness of Kazakh prostitutes instead of the sombre tones of the real national anthem at an international rifle shooting tournament.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 081, published on March 30 2012)
MARCH 29 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Aktau, west Kazakhstan, started the trial of 37 men accused of violence in a riot in December that killed 16 people. The trial is one of the most highly charged, politically and emotionally, in Kazakhstan’s recent history.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 081, published on March 30 2012)
MARCH 2 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in western Kazakhstan said they will charge 43 men with being involved in riots that killed at least 16 people on Dec. 16 in the town of Zhanaozen. Several police and officials have also been charged with employing excessive force and using live rounds to quell the riot.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 080, published on March 8 2012)
FEB. 25 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Watched and cajoled by a heavy police presence, around 250 anti-government protesters demonstrated in Almaty. There were probably three or four times more police than protesters. Local media reported smaller opposition rallies in Astana and Uralsk in the northwest.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 079, published on March 1 2012)
FEB. 27 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – British ministers flew to Central Asia this week to secure military exit routes from Afghanistan.
Starting in 2014 NATO wants to withdraw kit from Afghanistan. Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, spent days in Central Asia last year hatching deals to secure the US exit.
Now the British are ramping up their effort. They plan to withdraw an estimated 11,000 containers and 3,000 vehicles from Afghanistan.
Building on low-key trips by military commanders to Central Asia last year, Philip Hammond, British minister for defence, visited Astana and Tashkent. In Kazakhstan he secured an agreement for British flights through Kazakh airspace and started talks on a land access deal.
After Astana, Mr Hammond visited the Uzbek government in Tashkent, a more controversial partner in the NATO logistics route because of its alleged human rights abuses. He left his more junior colleague Nick Harvey, minister for the Armed Forces, to journey to Bishkek, Ashgabat and Dushanbe. An indication, perhaps, of priorities.
In the 19th century British military officers played a Great Game of cat and mouse with their Russian rivals in Central Asia.
Their mission then was to impede Russia’s advance into Afghanistan and beyond to India. Britain’s new Great Game is to secure an exit for its own military from Afghanistan through Central Asia.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 079, published on March 1 2012)
FEB. 16 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Britain sentenced Mukhtar Ablyazov, the former CEO of BTA Bank, to 22 months in jail for contempt of court. Ablyazov is accused of embezzling $5b. He fled to London in 2009, claiming political asylum, and has since used it as a base to finance Kazakh opposition groups.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 78, published on Feb. 23 2012)
FEB. 8 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to Germany, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed around 50 deals worth €3b with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. One of the biggest deals was for German engineering company Siemens to upgrade Kazakhstan’s railways. Germany will also have access to rare metals in Kazakhstan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 77, published on Feb. 16 2012)
FEB. 9 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – France’s defence minister, Gerard Longuet, told the magazine L’Orient Le-Jour that NATO’s logistics route through Central Asia is too expensive. NATO has earmarked the route, dubbed the Northern Distribution Network, as the best way of withdrawing soldiers and kit in 2014 from Afghanistan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 77, published on Feb. 16 2012)
FEB. 14 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tengizchevroil, the Chevron-lead Kazakhstan oil producer, plans to invest $5b to $6b over the next five years to maintain production levels, Bloomberg quoted general-director Tim Miller as saying. Tengiz, near Atyrau on the Caspian Sea coast, is Kazakhstan largest oil producing field.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 77, published on Feb. 16 2012)
