JUNE 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Political fighting between Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili and his main rival PM Bidzina Ivanishvili has dented foreign investment in Georgia, Reuters reported by quoting several foreign businessmen and official statistics.
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(News report from Issue No. 138, published on June 10 2013)
JUNE 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s ruling New Azerbaijan Party nominated President Ilham Aliyev as its candidate in a presidential election set for October. Mr Aliyev took over as president from his father in Oct. 2003 and is expected to win a third term. A constitutional amendment scrapped a two-term limit in 2009.
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(News report from Issue No. 138, published on June 10 2013)
JUNE 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh security forces have interrogated Alma Shalabayeva, the wife of fugitive ex-banker Mukhtar Ablyazov, media reported. Italian police deported Ms Shalabayeva last week on allegations of holding an illegal passport. The Kazakh authorities accuse Ablyazov of plotting to overthrow the Kazakh government.
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(News report from Issue No. 138, published on June 10 2013)
MAY 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Kazakh authorities have stepped up their hunt for Mukhtar Ablyazov, the fugitive former chairman of BTA Bank.
First, in April, police in Almaty arrested Ablyazov’s former business partner Erlan Tatishev. Now, on May 29, Italian police swooped on Ablyazov’s wife, Alma Shalabayeva, and their 6-year-old daughter who were living in Rome.
The actual whereabouts of Ablyazov, wanted by British police for lying in court, is unknown, although media reports said Ms Shalabayeva was carrying a Central African Republic passport with a fake name when she was detained.
Lawyers for Ms Shalabayeva said the raid was illegal and that she held a Kazakh passport with a Latvian residency permit allowing her to stay in the EU. The Kazakh prosecutor-general has accused Ms Shalabayeva of being involved in various crimes.
Regardless, it appears defeating Ablyazov in court was not enough for Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev.
He has long considered Ablyazov to be dangerous. After fleeing Kazakhstan in 2009, Ablyazov set himself up in London. He funded political parties and media projects with the thinly disguised aim of unseating Mr Nazarbayev.
The Kazakh authorities accuse Ablyazov of stealing billions of dollars from BTA Bank, trying to overthrow the government and plotting to bomb public buildings.
This year a British court ruled against Ablyazov and ordered him to repay the Kazakh state billions of dollars.
British judges also decided that Ablyazov had lied in court. He has been on the run since 2012.
The net is tightening and the Kazakh authorities may soon have their man. This might, though, be the easy bit.
What to do with Albyazov then is possibly more complicated.
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(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)
MAY 31 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps echoing its Soviet past, Kazakhstan will fire a third of its high-level government officials after they failed a new test, media reported quoting the chairman of the state service agency, Alikhan Baimenov. The test for officials was introduced last year to professionalise Kazakhstan’s bureaucracy.
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(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)
MAY 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Human Rights Watch (HRW) accused the Azerbaijani authorities of planting drugs on opposition politicians to imprison them. According to the HRW press release, the drug plants are part of crack-down against civil society ahead of a presidential election in October.
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(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)
MAY 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Italy detained and deported back to Kazakhstan the wife and daughter of fugitive billionaire banker Mukhtar Ablyazov, media reported. Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev considers Ablyazov, ex-chairman of BTA Bank, to be one of his biggest enemies.
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(News report from Issue No. 137, published on June 3 2013)
MAY 21 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Georgia arrested ex-PM Vano Merabishvili and ex-health minister Zurab Chiaberashvili and charged them with stealing public funds. Supporters of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili say the government of PM Bidzina Ivanishvili has targeted them since winning an election in 2012.
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(News report from Issue No. 136, published on May 27 2013)
MAY 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov understands the value of symbolism.
Since coming to power in January 2007 he has introduced various public promotions. One of these is a national Horse Day to celebrate Turkmenistan’s Akhal-Teke, a local thoroughbred that is famed worldwide for its speed, strength and beauty. It is also a national Turkmen emblem.
Horse Day is celebrated on the last Sunday in April and the apex of the event is a race with prize money of $11m. This being Turkmenistan and Mr Berdymukhamedov being a man-of-action, though, the race can only have one outcome.
Videos of the race, held on April 28, have emerged showing Mr Berdymukhamedov galloping clear of the pack. The crowd roars as My Berdymukhamedov, gloriously, crosses the finishing line in first place. That’s where the official video, aired on national television, cuts.
Other videos, though, showed the president’s horse stopping abruptly, throwing Mr Berdymukhamedov to the ground. Dark suited security agents then jump over the barriers and run towards their stricken president. The crowd goes quiet as their leader is carried away.
Mr Berdymukhamedov recovers to collect his prize and the incident is quietly air-brushed from official history but not before it has provided an insight into Turkmen image management.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)
MAY 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – The EU is worried about a clamp-down on the internet ahead of an election in Azerbaijan later this year, Stefan Fule, the EU’s commissioner for enlargement, said after meeting Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev. Mr Fule also said a deal to improve visa arrangements between the EU and Azerbaijan was nearing.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 134, published on May 6 2013)
