Tag Archives: Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyz opposition threatens President

NOV. 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Omurbek Tekebayev, one of the opposition figures in Kyrgyzstan being investigated for allegedly setting up offshore accounts in Kyrgyzstan, said that he had started collecting signatures to impeach president Almazbek Atambayev. Mr Tekebayev is a member so the Ata Meken party which walked out of a government coalition in October over Mr Atambayev’s plans to hold a referendum in December that would extend the powers of the PM.

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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)

Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan warn about cold weather

NOV. 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Extreme cold weather forced schools to close and roads to be blocked off in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The unseasonably cold weather recorded a temperature of minus 40 Celsius in Ust Kamenogorsk in eastern Kazakhstan. In Astana, regarded as the second coldest capital in the world after Ulaan Bator, temperatures of minus 35 Celsius were 30 degrees lower than the seasonal average.

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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)

Armenia to cut energy consumption

NOV. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia plans to cut its consumption of gas, electricity and coal by 38% and boost its electricity generation from renewable sources, deputy energy minister Hayk Harutyunyan told local media. The ambitious plan appears to be another attempt by cash-strapped countries in Central Asia and the South Caucasus to cut expensive energy consumption. Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan have both announced plans to cut back on electricity-generation plans. Kyrgyzstan has also hinted it wants to use more green energy.

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(News report from Issue No. 306, published on Nov. 25 2016)

Kyrgyz MPs blame EEU for blocking meat exports

BISHKEK, NOV. 17 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz MPS blamed the Eurasian Economic Union for unfair restrictions which have slowed meat exports.

The criticism of the Eurasian Economic Union, and the implied bias towards the bigger member states, is just the latest attacked on the Kremlin-led economic bloc from Kyrgyz politicians and businesses who have always been sceptical of the benefits of joining.

Earlier this year, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev said that the Eurasian Economic Union had actually resulted in a drop in exports and also created mountains of extra red tape for businesses to deal with.

In parliament, Kyrgyz PM Sooronbai Jeenbekov said that meat producers have not been able to export to Eurasian Economic Union states since it joined the bloc because of alleged sanitary infractions.

“Kyrgyzstan fulfils all terms of the Eurasian economic union,” he said. “But protection of individual interests does not contribute to the deepening and strengthening of integration as a whole.”

A few weeks ago, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev accused Kazakhstan, also a Eurasian Economic Union member, of reneging on a promise to build a new site on the border that would have allowed Kyrgyz producers to receive the necessary paperwork needed to export meat. He alleged that Kazakhstan was trying to prevent Kyrgyz meat imports to stamp out competition.

Like the rest of the Central Asia and South Caucasus region, Kyrgyzstan has been dealing with an economic downturn since 2014 linked to a fall in oil prices that triggered a recession in the Russian economy. Kyrgyz timing in joining the Eurasian Economic Union in August 2015 means that it has become even more tightly bound to Russia.

The Eurasian Economic Union includes Russia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus and Armenia.

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(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Kyrgyzstan’s Atambayev orders investigation into corruption by rivals

BISHKEK, NOV. 13 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev appeared to be taking his revenge on opposition groups who quit the government last month over his plans to hold a referendum in December that would change the country’s constitution.

Media reported that he had held a meeting with the head of the National Security Committee, Adil Segizbayev. At the meeting Mr Segizbayev told Mr Atambayev that the government of Belize had passed on information that a handful of Kyrgyz politicians had helped Maxim Bakiyev, the hated son of deposed former Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, set up bank accounts in the Central American country.

Mr Segizbayev did not give any names out but in accompanying photos of documents linked to the case, the names of former justice minister Almanbet Shykmamatov, former general prosecutor Aida Salyanova and MP Omurbek Tekebayev are all clearly visible. They form the core of a group of MPs in the Ata Meken party who pulled down Kyrgyzstan’s coalition government last month. They have said the allegations, which haven’t shifted into charges yet, are unfounded.

Mr Atambayev can’t stand for another term as president next year and his rivals worry that he is tinkering with the constitution so that he can take over as an empowered PM once he leaves the presidency.

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(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Kyrgyz exports fall

NOV. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — In the first nine months of the year, Kyrgyzstan said that its exports had fallen by 9% and imports by 4.5%. The data confirms the view that the economies of Central Asia are still being squeezed by an economic downturn triggered in 2014 by a drop in oil prices. The drop in oil prices tipped Russia’s economy into a recession. Russia is the regional economic driver.

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(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Kyrgyzstan announces amnesty

NOV. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan released 1,277 inmates from its prisons in an amnesty designated to celebrate both the 25th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union and also the 100th anniversary of an uprising against imperial tsarist forces. The pan-Central Asia rebellion of 1916 was triggered by a decree from the Tsar to mobilise men to fight for Russian forces in the First World War. Russian soldiers repressed the rebellion within a year, killing thousands of people. Different governments have interpreted the uprisings through different lenses. The Soviet Union saw the uprisings as a class struggle. The newly independent countries of Central Asia frame them as national-liberation movements.

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(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

EBRD and EU expand loan for Kyrgyzstan

NOV. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The EBRD and the EU will expand their programme to support improvements in Kyrgyzstan’s energy efficiency with a $45m loan. The new credit line seeks to boost energy efficiency, particularly for water usage, for Kyrgyz businesses and households.

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(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Uzbek and Kyrgyz officials meet

NOV. 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek and Kyrgyz officials met in Ferghana City, Uzbekistan, to agree resolutions to seven more border dispute areas, the 24.kg news website reported. The border resolution process is part of a drive by Uzbekistan since the death of Islam Karimov in September to repair damaged relations with its neighbours. 24.kg reported that the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border was 1,378km long and that nearly a third of this has been disputed.

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(News report from Issue No. 305, published on Nov. 18 2016)

Comment: C.Asia and S.Caucasus eye up a Trump presidency, says Kilner

NOV. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Donald Trump, the incoming US president, has a long list of issues that need tackling in Central Asia and the South Caucasus, not least the dominance of China and Russia.

Central Asia, in particular, has traditionally been an arena where the world’s great powers have shadow-boxed, testing each other’s strengths and weaknesses. This is just as true today as it was during the 19th century’s Great Game between Russia and Britain. Now, though, China has entered the fray and the West is led by the US and not Britain.

Since NATO withdrew most of its forces from Afghanistan in 2013/14, US interest in Central Asia has waned and it has ceded diplomatic, economic and cultural influence to Russia and China.

When she was Secretary of State between 2009 and 2013, Hillary Clinton promoted a new north-south Silk Road running from Central Asia to India. This was to be US soft power in action, a commercial push to rival influences exerted by China through its loans and by Russia through its diplomatic and energy levers. It hasn’t shaped up to much, and Clinton wont now be able to see it through, but Trump, a businessman and reality TV star, may be well-placed to invigorate this north-south Silk Road.

Governments in Central Asia and the South Caucasus will also be watching his policies on NATO, Russia and Iran.

Georgia has, perhaps, the most to be concerned about. It has struck out on a determinedly Western direction and needs a strong US and NATO as a counterpoint to Russia. If the US’ commitment to NATO wanes, Georgia will be more vulnerable to Russian aggression. Certainly its two breakaway states, Russia-backed Abkhazia and South Ossetia, will feel emboldened.

Barack Obama brought Iran back into the international community by partly lifting sanctions linked to the development of its nuclear sector. Its reemergence was heralded in Central Asia and the South Caucasus as an opportunity. They will be looking to a US led by Trump to boost, and not deflate, Iran’s place in the world. They want Iran to be an economic driver.

And the US’ relationship with Russia is important too. If US-Russia relations don’t improve, and the Russian economy continues to shrink, this filters through to Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

They will be looking for an improvement in US- Russia relations to generate a boost for the Russian economy.

By James Kilner, Editor, The Conway Bulletin

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(News report from Issue No. 304, published on Nov. 11 2016)