Tag Archives: Kyrgyzstan

Russia cancels Kyrgyzstan’s debt

JUNE 19 2017 (The Bulletin) — Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to wipe out Kyrgyzstan’s debt of $240m, a deal that analysts said was hinged around Bishkek continued loyalty to Moscow. The deal was secured during a trip to Moscow by Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev. Kyrgyzstan is an important Russian ally. It is a member of the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union and also the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. It also hosts a Russian Air Base.

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(News report from Issue No. 334, published on June 26 2017)

Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan deny peacekeeping press reports

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JUNE 23 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kazakh and Kyrgyz officials denied earlier press reports which said that they had been asked to provide peacekeeper soldiers for a force in Syria. Earlier reports had quoted Turkish and Russian sources as saying that both Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan had been asked to provide military support to a peacekeeping force in Syria. The Kazakh and Kyrgyz militaries have limited, if any, experience of peacekeeping operations.

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(News report from Issue No. 334, published on June 26 2017)

Stock market: Georgia Healthcare, KAZ minerals

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JUNE 19 2017 (The Bulletin) — It was a poor week for stocks in companies linked to Central Asia and the South Caucasus. All stocks were either stagnant or fell, with the notably exception of Georgia Healthcare, which is perhaps the standout performer of the year.

By the end of the week, Georgia Healthcare stock had risen by 12% to 394.5p, smashing past its previous all-time high of 373p hit in February.

As for the fallers, the heaviest tumbles were taken by KAZ Minerals and Centerra Gold. KAZ Minerals, the Kazakhstan focused copper producer, fell 11.4% to 471.5p. This, although it looks bad, was merely a correction to return to trading at a level it has been anchored around for the past month.

Centerra Gold’s shares are volatile. The Canada-based miner whose main asset is the Kumtor gold mine in eastern Kyrgyzstan is locked in a near permanent dogfight with the Kyrgyz government for control of its asset. This week, though, traders said that short-selling had knocked the value of its shares. It finished the week at C$6.72, a fall of over 8%, and its lowest level since the start of March.

Other notably fallers include Nostrum Oil & Gas, which lost around 4.7% of its stock price, more than the fall in oil, and TBC Bank, a Georgian bank, which also shed around 5% of its value, possibly because inflation data remained stubbornly high.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Kyrgyzstan should drop charges against journalist, says CPJ

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JUNE 9 2017 (The Bulletin) — The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said that Kyrgyzstan’s National Security Committee should drop charges against Ferghana News journalist Ulughbek Babakulov that an article he wrote on a knife fight in May was designed to ignite racial hatred. Mr Babakulov has fled the country and has said that his reporting was based on Facebook posts of the fight in the south of the country between ethnic Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks and that the security services were trying to cover up any suggestion of ethnic tension.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

UN chief’s visit disappoints human rights activists

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ALMATY, JUNE 15 2017 (The Bulletin) — UN Security general Antonio Guterres completed a tour of all five Central Asian states, his first since taking the job six months ago, although human rights activists complained that he had taken too soft a line on a regional crackdown of journalists and dissenters.

Mr Guterres’ main message was that the governments of the region need to remain engaged with international organisations to reach their full potential.

“Kazakhstan has been a symbol of dialogue, a symbol of peace, a symbol of the promotion of contacts between cultures, religions and civilizations; and with its presence in the (UN) Security Council, an extremely important dimension in mediation, in relation to conflict,” he said in Astana.

In Ashgabat, a few days later, after attending a counter-terrorism conference Mr Guterres, a former Portuguese PM and UN high commissioner for refugees, took a tougher line on rights.

“Upholding the rights of freedom of expression, association and peaceful assembly in this region are fundamental to countering the threat that violent extremism poses,” he said.

Even so, with media freedoms and human rights on the retreat in the region, after a series of arrests of journalists and a crackdown on workers’ unions, activists accused Mr Guterres of going soft on the issue in favour of developing nodes of engagement.

Hugh Williamson, director of the Central Asia division at New York- based Human Rights Watch, said Mr Guterres had failed to meet members of local civil rights movements on his tour of the region and that describing Kazakhstan as a “pillar of stability” and Kyrgyzstan as a “pioneer of democracy” was sending out the wrong message.

“Central Asian leaders also pay close attention to what high-level visitors like Guterres focus on, also in public,” he said in a statement.

“Not only did Guterres fail to set clear expectations on human rights improvements across Central Asia, his praise for his largely authoritarian audience risks sending the message that trampling over human rights is fine.”

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Kazakh Parliament approves aid deal

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JUNE 14 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s parliament ratified a deal to give Kyrgyzstan $100m of aid to help adapt to Eurasian Economic Union regulations for animal sanitary and customs procedures, media reported. Kyrgyzstan has previously complained that Kazakhstan was deliberately causing problems on its shared border.

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(News report from Issue No. 333, published on June 19 2017)

Kyrgyzstan trials opposition leaders

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JUNE 5 2017 (The Bulletin) — Omurbek Tekebaev, leader of Kyrgyzstan’s Ata-Mekan party, and Duishonkul Chotonov, Kyrgyzstan’s former emergencies minister, went on trial for allegedly taking bribes in 2010. They were arrested in February, triggering a series of protests in the capital Bishkek. Both men deny the charges and have said that they are politically motivated. Mr Tekebaev is the Ata Meken candidate for a presidential election in October.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Kyrgyzstan arrests suicide bomber

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JUNE 8 2017 (The Bulletin) — The authorities in Kyrgyzstan said that they had arrested a man plotting a suicide attack in the country. In August 2016 a man drove a car bomb into the Chinese embassy in Bishkek. It was later blamed on Uighur separatists. No more details of the arrest or of the bomb attack plan were released.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)

Currencies: Kyrgyzstan’s som

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JUNE 12 2017 (The Bulletin) — The Kyrgyz som dropped another 0.3% over the week, adding to a general downward trend since the end of April when it briefly threatened to break through the lower 67/$1 barrier.

On April 27, the Kyrgyz som hit 67.13/$1, a level not seen since the currency devaluation of 2015/16. Since then the som has fallen back to a level that analysts have said is a more natural range of between 68 and 69 per $1. It is now trading at 1.25% higher than at the start of the year.

Elsewhere, the Uzbek soum continued its slow downward trajectory and the Kazakh tenge moved closer to falling through the 316/$1 barrier, a level not seen since the beginning of May. It has generally tracked down with oil.

India and Pakistan join Central Asia-focused SCO

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ALMATY, JUNE 9 2017 (The Bulletin) — India and Pakistan joined the Russia and China led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), pushing the military-economic group beyond Central Asia for the first time.

The SCO, set up in 2001 after Uzbekistan joined what had been called the Shanghai Five, now covers 3.1b people — nearly half the world’s population.

For Central Asia, the geographic focus of the SCO, the ascension of India and Pakistan confirms it as a fulcrum of world diplomacy and also pulls South Asia tighter into its economic sphere.

After its annual 2-day summit meeting in Astana, the SCO said: “The heads of state highlighted the historical significance of the SCO’s enlargement. They believe that granting full SCO membership to India and Pakistan at the current meeting of the SCO Heads of State Council will facilitate the further development and enhance the potential of the SCO.”

The success of the SCO has crept up on Western governments. It has largely been built on China’s drive into Central Asia.

Russia, through its Soviet legacy, has more access points into Central Asia than China and has largely used the SCO as a meeting place and for developing military ties. China, though, has used the SCO to dispense everything from cheap credit to infrastructure deals and military know- how and sees it as a vital cog in its ‘One Belt. One Road’ strategy focused on developing trade corridors to Europe.

Sheng Shiliang, a researcher at the Xinhua Center for World Affairs Studies, told Chinese media that SCO expansion was important to China.

“The SCO has never been just a security group from the beginning. The Belt and Road Initiative offers a timely and convenient framework for the SCO members to facilitate connectivity and ultimately, achieve free flows of goods, capital, service and technology,” he said.

For India and Pakistan, joining the SCO will increase their presence in Central Asia. Over the past five years, India has been trying to catch up with China’s progress in the region. It wants to develop markets and buy up energy projects.

Pakistan has developed links mainly through the TAPI gas pipeline, which will run from Turkmenistan and also through the CASA-1000 electricity scheme which will send power generated by hydropower stations in Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan.

The only country in Central Asia that is not a member of the SCO is Turkmenistan, which has traditionally taken a more isolationist neutral stance to international organisations.

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(News report from Issue No. 332, published on June 12 2017)