Tag Archives: politics

Top Armenian official resigns over offshore links

APRIL 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Mihran Poghosyan, formerly Armenia’s Chief Compulsory Enforcement Officer, resigned after his name appeared linked to offshore accounts that Armenian media said created a conflict of interest with government tenders.

Mr Poghosyan’s name emerged in leaked documents from the Panama- registered Mossack Fonseca law firm, linking him and his relatives to real estate, brokerage and import firms which have won government tenders. He had previously said he had dropped his businesses before joining the public service.

His resignation is unique in the region. Officials previously targeted by investigative dossiers generally managed to keep their positions.

ENDS

Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Editorial: Armenian official quits

APRIL 22 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Corporate governance and transparency activists in Central Asia and the South Caucasus have a scalp, finally.

Mihran Poghosyan was forced to resign from his post as Armenia’s Chief Compulsory Enforcement Officer after being tracked as the owner of off- shore companies that had won government tenders. This was considered a conflict of interest.

If true, the revelation, which emerged from the so-called Panama Papers leak, means that Mr Poghosyan had lied when he said that he had dropped his business interests before assuming office.

And, in a rare move for a senior official in the region, he resigned and said he will fight a legal battle in court to demonstrate his innocence.

The Panama Papers still have some distance to run and it is likely that more revelations will come out about senior officials and government leaders in the region.

What is far less likely, though, is that these revelations will trigger more resignations.

ENDS

Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(Editorial from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Georgian parliament introduces new tax code

APRIL 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Georgian parliament adopted a new tax bill taken from the so- called ‘Estonian model’, which mandates corporate tax to be imposed only on distributed profits. The government forecasts a loss of 600m lari ($260m) in 2017, the first year of the new tax regime. “This loss is expected to be fully compensated by economic growth,” deputy finance minister Lasha Khutsishvili told MPs.

ENDS

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(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

 

Turkmen President reprimand officials

APRIL 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov reprimanded Shamukhamet Durdyliyev, deputy PM and a member of the Presidential Administration, for the lack of progress made in a programme to beautify Ashgabat.

This is an apparent continuation of his penchant for publicly humiliating officials he feels have been underperforming. Ashgabat’s city administration has felt Mr Berdymukhamedov’s wrath before. Last August, he sacked Ashgabat’s mayor, Redzhepgeldi Nurmammedov, also for failing to improve his much loved capital city.

ENDS

Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Kazakh businessman closes in on total control of Kazkommertsbank

ALMATY, APRIL 20 2016, (The Conway Bulletin) — The finish line is now in sight for Kenes Rakishev, a Kazakh businessman linked closely to the country’s elite, who has seemingly made taking over Kazkommertsbank one of his priorities.

In this process, control of Kazakhstan’s largest bank has been ripped from Nurzhan Subkhanberdin, a former opponent of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev.

A KazKom statement said that Mr Rakishev, 36, will buy out Subkhanberdin’s remaining shares in the bank by the summer. Mr Rakishev is also poised to become the next chairman in May.

“[Mr Rakishev] is expected to chair the board of directors and Marc Holtzman, chairman, shall take the CEO position in May 2016 after the extraordinary general meeting of shareholders,” KazKom said earlier this month.

As of this week, Mr Rakishev owns a 71.23% stake in Kazkommertsbank. When he buys out the rest of Mr Subkhanberdin’s shares, his stake will rise to 86%. Samruk-Kazyna, the Kazakh sovereign wealth fund owns a 10.7% stake in KazKom and the rest is owned by unnamed minority shareholders.

This takeover started in February 2014 when, essentially, the Kazakh government started to offload the debt-ridden BTA Bank onto KazKom and also to use it as a Trojan Horse to dislodge the London-based Mr Subkhanberdin.

Analysts have said the government, with Mr Rakishev as the nominated project leader, forced KazKom to buy BTA Bank from Samruk-Kazyna.

This weakened Mr Subkhanberdin’s control of the bank and started a process that has propelled Mr Rakishev to both being the owner and chairman of KazKom.

The eventual merger of KazKom and BTA Bank last year and the promotion of Mr Rakishev are the biggest changes to Kazakhstan’s banking sector since the Global Financial Crisis of 2008/9, but both the government and Mr Rakishev have been assiduous in avoiding commenting in public about it.

Even so, Mr Rakishev has developed an increasingly high public profile in Kazakhstan.

The son-in-law of the current Kazakh minister of defence, Mr Rakishev shot to prominence in 2008 as the go-between for Timur Kulibayev, President Nazarbayev’s son-in-law, and the British Royal Family when he bought an estate in England from Prince Andrew.

Since then, he has had a hand in some of Kazakhstan’s biggest business deals.

He also, officially, owns a 75% share in industrial holding Sat&Co. and a 20% stake in Central Asia Metals, a copper producer listed in London.

To this list he can now add KazKom.

ENDS

Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on  April 22 2016)

 

Uzbek authorities release Karimov critic

APRIL 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek authorities released from prison Shukhrat Nusratov, a former MP who criticised President Islam Karimov in the first few years of Uzbekistan’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. Mr Nusratov had been jailed for seven years in 2012 for various economic crimes that his supporters said were fabricated.

ENDS

Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Tajik government approves President’s Day

APRIL 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s Parliament approved a bill to establish President’s Day on Nov. 16, official media reported. The day will mark the date that President Emomali Rakhmon assumed office in 1994. President’s Day will not be a public holiday.

ENDS

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(News report from Issue No. 277, published on April 22 2016)

Editorial: Civil rights in Georgia

APRIL 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A long battle against an eavesdropping law in Georgia was resolved by the country’s Constitutional Court. It deemed the bill unconstitutional and mandated its amendment within the next 12 months.

The controversial bill, which allowed government security agencies to have unrestricted access to communications across telecom networks, was the focus of a fierce battle between the Parliament, the President and civil society in late 2014.

The political coalitions in the Parliament split during the heated debate on the bill. Ultimately, a thin majority approved the bill.

At the time, President Giorgi Margvelashvili vetoed the bill. Parliament, though, voted to override the presidential veto — dealing a huge blow to Mr Margvelashvili’s authority.

With this final victory for those fighting the bill, Georgia will now have to drop legislation that infringed civil liberties and privacy of its citizens, handing civil society a rare victory over state agencies and giving Mr Margvelashvili his payback.

ENDS

Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(Editorial from Issue No. 276, published on April 15 2016)

Kazakh President appoints new personal advisor

APRIL 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev nominated former energy minister and Kazakh government veteran Vladimir Shkolnik as his personal adviser. Mr Shkolnik was sacked from the post of energy minister in March. Mr Shkolnik will also hold the role of adviser to state-owned oil and gas company Kazmunaigas.

ENDS

Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 276, published on April 15 2016)

 

Sariyev quits as Kyrgyz PM to fight corruption allegations

APRIL 11 2016, BISHKEK  (The Conway Bulletin) — Temir Sariyev quit as Kyrgyzstan’s PM, less than a year after taking the job, after he was accused of corruption over a roadbuilding contract.

Three days later parliament voted in Sooronbai Jeenbekov, considered a heavyweight politician from Osh and loyal to President Almazbek Atambayev, as the new PM.

Emil Juraev, a professor at the American University of Central Asia, said Mr Jeenbekov may have been handed the PM job because he is able to unify bickering north-south factions.

“The new PM is a figure that suits all interested parties,” he said. “He is less ambitious and autonomous, compared to Sariyev.”

Still, Mr Jeenbekov is Kyrgyzstan’s sixth PM since a new constitution that handed more power to parliament was imposed in October 2010, highlighting just how fractured the Kyrgyz political landscape is.

On the streets of Bishkek, the frustrations of ordinary Kyrgyz that another PM had lasted less than a year were evident. Kablanbek, 60, said that he was disappointed to see Mr Sariyev go already.

“He should have worked for at least two-three years. Quitting after one year in office was a terrible idea,” he said.

At the centre of the latest corruption allegation to hit Kyrgyz politics was a contract Mr Sariyev handed to a Chinese company last year.

Mr Sariyev has denied that there was any corruption involved. Giving a resignation speech at this final government meeting, he said that he was the victim of lies and intrigue.

“I have neither time nor intention to play such political games,” he said. But many people held a different view. They have become cynical of Kyrgyz politicians and high levels of corruption. Daniyer, a 25-year-old student, reflected the views of many when he said: “In such positions, everyone tries to seize the opportunity to rob the country.”

ENDS

Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 276, published on April 15 2016)