AUG.11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili responded to criticism from US senators that Georgia was unfairly prosecuting former president Mikheil Saakashvili for abuse of power by saying his prosecution would create a more equal society.The US, Georgia’s most important ally, has said charges against Mr Saakashvili are politically motivated.
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(News report from Issue No. 195, published on Aug. 13 2014)
AUG. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Georgia issued an arrest warrant for former president Mikheil Saakashvili on charges that he abused his power and illegally privatised state assets during his 10 years in power. Mr Saakashvili, who is living in Europe, has said the new Georgian government is using the law to settle vendettas.
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(News report from Issue No. 194, published on Aug. 6 2014)
JULY 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prosecutors in Georgia charged former president Mikheil Saakashvili with illegally breaking up an anti-government demonstration in 2007, taking over a television station and expropriating a businessman’s assets.
Mr Saakashvili, who has previously declined to appear in front of a court to face the charges, described them as politically motivated.
Georgian politics is sharply polarised and since the Georgian Dream coalition, led by Georgia’s richest man Bidzina Ivanishvili, came to power in the parliamentary elections in 2012 and the presidential vote in 2013 it has chased and charged Mr Saakashvili’s former associates with various crimes.
Both the EU and the US have criticised the Georgian Dream for persecuting former high-ranking officials but, despite Georgia’s continued pro-Western agenda, they have been unable to stop the charges.
Mr Saakashvili left Georgia last year, after the presidential election, to avoid facing charges which he said would be fabricated and levied against him.
The United States considered Mr Saakashvili a key ally and charges levied against him will irritate them.
“Commitment to the rule of law means both that everyone must comply with the law in a democratic society and that the legal system should not be used as a tool of political retribution,” the US State Department said in a statement.
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(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 22 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Uzbekistan has annulled a takeover of cement producer Akhangarancement by Russia’s Eurocement in 2006, paving the way for the state to renationalise it. The ruling is a blow for foreign businesses in Uzbekistan and underlines their suspicion of the Uzbek government.
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(News report from Issue No. 193, published on July 30 2014)
JULY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajiks will be able to watch their favourite Turkish serial Defenders again after the government lifted a ban. The government had said the Defenders showed scenes related to extremism. Kazakhstan is also considering a ban. More likely the problem is fear of Turkish cultural and political influence.
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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JULY 8 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – In an effort to dampen souring corruption rates, Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev signed into law a bill that will force municipal governments to post in public their plans about various contraction projects. Construction is a major source of corruption in Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 192, published on July 9 2014)
JUNE 30 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – It looks as if Kazakhstan has gently reformed its state pension plan without creating too much of a fuss.
Reform of the generous Soviet-era pension scheme is a particularly thorny issue across the former Soviet Union. Armenia’s government resigned in April because of protests against its proposed changes to the pension scheme and last year in Kazakhstan, a minister resigned after suggesting that women should work for as long as men.
Now though, it looks as if the Kazakh government has gently pushed through the changes it needs to make.
State media reported that President Nursultan Nazarbayev had signed into law a plan to modernise pensions.
The basic premise of the new pension plan, which won’t come into effect until 2016, is that employers will pay the equivalent of 5% of their employees’ salaries to the government. This, media said, will be used by the government to cover a current shortfall in the pension scheme.
So, in total, Kazakh workers will from 2016 effectively contribute the equivalent of 15% of their salary to the government’s pension pot. Employees will pay 10% and companies another 5%.
As the increased pension contribution comes from companies, rather than from workers, it’s unlikely to trigger public protests. Analysts, though, have said that the pension hole has become so big that the Kazakh government may also decide to increase direct employee contributions. That may cause trouble.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Uralsk, western Kazakhstan, jailed British oil worker Peter Baruch for eight years for child pornography related offences. Police arrested Baruch, who had worked in Kazakhstan since 2009, earlier this year after he was caught paying an underage girl to pose naked for him in his hotel room.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan banned the sale of alcohol between 9pm and 12am every day except in licensed bars and restaurants in an attempt to get people to drink less Alcohol sales are ubiquitous in shops around the country, something officials blame for the high level of drinking.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s Constitutional Court appears to have ruled against a controversial law introduced two years ago that banned foreigners from buying land in the country.
The trigger for the reversal of the 2012 law was a case brought to the court by Mathias Huter, am Austrian citizen working for the anti-corruption lobby group Transparency International.
The Constitutional Court ruled in his favour, effectively lifting a moratorium imposed on land purchases by foreigners in 2012. For Georgia’s image as a place to invest, this is good news.
The original ban had been a piece of gimmickry by the United National Movement party (UNM), the ruling party of President Mikheil Saakashvili. There had been a backlash against moves introduced to encourage South Africans and Punjabis to move to Georgia to farm. The idea had been that the immigrants would bring new technology and raise production. Instead the incomers generated resentment.
Displaying an unashamedly populist touch and with a parliamentary election on the horizon, the UNM introduced laws to ban foreigners from buying land.
Although the moratorium has not yet officially been lifted, commentators said that the ruling effectively dismantled it. This is another success for the ruling Georgian Dream coalition which defeated the UNM in a 2012 parliamentary election, a 2013 presidential election and a 2014 local election.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
