Tag Archives: politics

Sweden’s Telia scraps deal to sell Tajik mobile network

DUSHANBE, MARCH 31 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Telia, the Swedish telecoms company, accused Tajikistan’s government of effectively blocking the $39m sale of mobile unit Tcell to the Aga Khan, an accusation that will undermine Western business confidence in the country.

The Tajik government’s anti- monopoly agency failed to respond to a request to approve the Tcell deal before a deadline set by Telia, forcing it to void the sale of its 60% stake in the company to the Aga Khan Fund for Economic Development (AKFED).

In a statement, Emil Nilsson, head of the Eurasia region for Telia, said that the company had now written off the value of Tcell’s assets, which it put at $13m, although it was still looking for an alternative buyer.

“We have taken all relevant actions in trying to close the deal. The proposed buyer of our interest in Tcell, AKFED, is an established investor in the region with multiple companies in its current portfolio and a long history in Tcell,” he said. “We are now assessing alternative ownership solutions for Tcell.”

Neither the Tajik government nor the Aga Khan have commented.

Telia has been looking to sell its units in Central Asia and the South Caucasus after a corruption probe in 2012/3 discovered it had paid a bribe of several hundred million dollars five years earlier to Gulnara Karimova, daughter of Uzbekistan’s then president Islam Karimov, in exchange for market access. Karimov died last year and Ms Karimova has been under house arrest in Tashkent since 2014.

The corruption scandal tarnished Telia’s reputation in the region. Netherlands-based MTS and Norway’s Telenor were also mired in the bribe-paying controversy.

Afterwards, in a damming indictment for companies operating in the region, Telia said the business environment in Central Asia was too riddled through with corruption that reputational damage was inevitable. It was better, the company had concluded, to sell its stakes in Tcell, Kcell (Kazakhstan), Ucell (Uzbekistan), Azercell (Azerbaijan) and Geocell (Georgia) than to risk more reputational damage.

The Aga Khan already owned a 40% stake in Tcell and had agreed to buy Telia’s stake in September last year.

In January, though, Telia accused the Tajik government of trying to pressure it into paying an unmerited tax bill and in February it said it had asked the anti-monopoly unit for a meeting to discuss why it hadn’t yet approved the deal with the Aga Khan.

A Conway Bulletin correspondent in Dushanbe confirmed that the Tcell network was operating as normal.

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

Georgian court jails Ex-MP for property Ponzi scam

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TBILISI, APRIL 3 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Tbilisi sent the high-profile sisters Maia Rcheulishvili and Rusudan Kervalishvili to four years in prison for embezzlement linked to their construction company Center Point Group.

In a court case that gripped Georgia, the once glamorous sisters who had it all were told they had swindled 6,200 families out of $14m by promising them that they would build the homes of their dreams.

Instead many investors got nothing.

After the judgement, though, there was outrage from some families who said the sisters had gotten off lightly and that the real amount they had embezzled in an elaborate Ponzi scheme was far greater. In 2012, Transparency International, the anti- corruption lobby group, produced a report which said they had stolen $310m.

The judge said that the scam ran from 1999, when the Center Point Group was established, until it went bankrupt in 2008. Its assets were then moved to a company called Dexus in a deal in 2010 that observers have described as murky.

Center Point Group was notorious for collecting large advance payments from clients on promises to build luxury apartments. Hundreds said they never received their apartments.

For Ms Kervalishvili, prison represents a sharp fall from grace. She was once regarded as one of the richest and most successful businesswomen in the country. She had been an MP for former president Mikheil Saakashvili’s United National Movement party and Parliament’s deputy speaker in 2008-12.

M Rcheulishvili’s husband is Vakhtang Rcheulishvili who was the former head of the Georgian Socialist party and a deputy speaker of Parliament in the 1990s and 2000s.

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

US Senators want Trump Azerbaijan deal probe

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MARCH 30 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — US Senators asked for an official investigation into a hotel deal US President Donald Trump made in Azerbaijan which they suspect may have exposed him, indirectly, to illegal contact with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

The deal, made before Mr Trump became US President earlier this year, involved Anar Mammadov, son of Ziya Mammadov. Ziya Mammadov used to be Azerbaijan’s transport minister and one of the most powerful people in the country. He had a reputation, though, for corruption and also for being linked to the Iranian Revolutionary Guard.

As well as possibly being tarnished by association with corruption allegations linked to the Mammadovs, Mr Trump may also have indirectly exposed himself to dealing with the Iran Revolutionary Guard, an organisation still covered by US sanctions. The Senators requested the investigation via the Senate’s Foreign Relations, Banking, and Judiciary committees which then sent on the request to the Attorney General, Jeff Sessions, the Treasury Secretary, Steven Mnuchin, and FBI director, James Comey. They have yet to respond.

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(News report from Issue No. 323, published on April 6 2017)

Georgian parliament overrides presidential veto

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MARCH 23 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s president overrode a veto by President Giorgi Margvelashvili over a bill that will give the government far reaching surveillance powers. Mr Margvelashvili had objected to the bill because he said it was too expensive to create an agency solely to increase surveillance of people suspected of aiding and abetting terrorism and also of criminals. He also said, and this was possibly his main point, that it was unclear if the new agency would be independent. Relations between Mr Margvelashvili and the Georgian Dream government are strained.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Comment: Armenia is facing its most important election, says Bagdasaryan

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MARCH 27 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The April 2 parliamentary elections will define Armenia’s politics for the next five years, starting with the transformation from semi-presidential government to parliamentary republic even though this shift is not fully understood by the majority of society.

Armenia’s ruling Republican party is playing on society’s lack of understanding of the changes to try to retain a majority in parliament. But this is not a promising election for Republicans and for party leader, President Serzh Sargsyan.

The ruling party’s rating reached a historical low after years of economic stagnation, and accusations that corrupt officials were to blame for losses in a breakdown of a ceasefire with Azerbaijan around the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh in April last year. When 20 gunmen stormed a police station in Yerevan a few months later and took nine policemen hostage for two weeks, the violent action was not condemned by the public. Instead they were welcomed.

This seizure of the police station was used by the government as a trigger for reforms. The government changed some of the less-liked faces and Sargsyan invited former Yerevan mayor and Gazprom official Karen Karapetyan back from Moscow to become prime minister. Karapetyan promised to improve the government, root out corruption, improve the business environment and invest into the economy. His style of management was widely supported by the media and was positively greeted.

Karapetyan and his small team now lead Republicans’ election campaign, while the President, and party chairman, Serzh Sargsyan keeps himself in the shadows. Karapetyan’s popularity endures but there is still a job to do to win the election and that is where the Republican Party’s strategy comes into play. The Republican Party list of candidates is dominated by business and administrative heavyweights who’ll bring votes to the party.

The opposition fall short in this category. Almost all of them, with the exception of the pseudo-opposition Tsarukyan party, are fighting to enter parliament not through majoritan wins, but by passing the proportional representation threshold (5% for a party or 7% for a bloc).

The new parliament will take part in a power reshape between the president and the prime minister. A smooth election would legitimatise the new Constitution and parliamentary system.

By Eric Bagdasaryan is an independent analyst and executive secretary of Armenian Centre for Social Development and Public Policy

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Turkmen president changes Ashgabat Games logo

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MARCH 26 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov apparently ordered a redesign of the official mascot of the Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games, a shepherd’s dog named Wepaly, that Ashgabat is hosting in September after deciding that it gave out the wrong image.

Only two weeks after his official introduction as the mascot of the Games, the green dog with the face tattoo and the slightly confused, baffled look has been replaced by a white eager-looking dog wearing a traditional sheepskin hat.

In a long explanation of the new Wepaly’s attributes released on a state-run website, an official wrote that the alabai dog had been chosen as the Games’ mascot because it had always been man’s best friend, standing guard over flocks of sheep and homes.

“Wepaly is sincere, fair, acts decisively and always overcomes the enemy. He is a brave, strong-willed, fearless character and will be an inspiring example for the triumphs of Turkmen athletes,” the state-run news agency wrote. Wepaly means true in Turkmen. Wepaly is then shown playing a series of sports from chess to Thai boxing to football.

The Asian Indoor and Martial Arts Games is the opportunity that President Berdymukhamedov has been looking for to showcase Turkmenistan. Sports events are increasingly used by leaders in Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Azerbaijan has hosted the inaugural European Games, will stage its second F1 Grand Prix later this year and has been chosen to hold matches for the 2020 European football championships.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Georgian officials to hand control of Rustavi-2 TV

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MARCH 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a move that appears designed to outmanoeuvre a directive by Georgia’s Supreme Court to hand control of the Rustavi-2 TV channel to a pro-government businessman, the TV channel owners said that they wanted to give their shares to a company called Rustavi-2 is Mine ltd that is owned by its journalists and other employees. Earlier this year, the European Court for Human Rights stepped in and blocked the Georgian Supreme Court’s order to hand over control of Rustavi-2, which is fiercely critical of the government, to Kibar Khalvashi, who said he had been stripped of control of the TV channel by former Georgian president, Mikheil Saakashvili.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Riot police clash with protesters in Kyrgyz capital

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BISHKEK, MARCH 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Roughly 500 people protested outside the security services in Bishkek against the arrest of a former MP, the latest and most violent in a series of demonstrations that have punctured the relative peace of the Kyrgyz capital this year.

Sadyr Japarov, a former MP, was arrested at a border checkpoint when he tried to return to Kyrgyzstan after fleeing the country in 2013.

Protesters scrapped and fought with police, in what has been described as the most violent anti- government clashes this year, after the deadline for Mr Japarov’s release from questioning by the security serv- ices came and went without him emerging. Bishkek is increasingly tense with presidential elections scheduled for November expected to be a tightly fought affair.

Police armed with riot gear had to move in to break up the demonstrations. Police said that they detained 68 people.

There have been several protests already this year in Kyrgyzstan focused on allegations made against the main opposition party Ata Meken, but opinion among experts and locals about this unexpected protest were divided. Some said the arrest, the protest, and quickly-ar- ranged press conference given by the ministry of interior looked suspicious.

“The brave arrival of Sadyr Japarov with the simultaneous organisation of an assertive protest, which would certainly fail, is somewhat strange,” wrote Nurbek Toktakunov, a well- known civil activist and human rights advocate in Bishkek, on Facebook.

A Bishkek lawyer said that the organisational skills shown by the ministry of interior in staging a press conference immediately after the protest were unprecedented.

“The ministry of interior rarely gives press conferences about demonstrations. This is surprising,” he said, asking to remain anonymous.

Other analysts said that the protest may have been organised by the security services to discredit the opposition. Mr Japarov’s return was unexpected as it is unclear what he was returning for, although some said he wanted to drum up support for standing in the presidential election. He had been an MP with the now marginalised Ata Zhurt party, and had largely been forgotten during his self-imposed exile.

The state authorities had accused him in 2012 of trying to overthrow the government. He denied the charges and fled the country.

Some locals praised the police action, though.

“Unregistered protests lead to anarchy. They began to throw stones, plastic bottles and broke through the cordon,” said Daniyar, 27, a resident of Bishkek. “It was a good job our policemen took preventive measures, otherwise it would be chaos.”

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Turkmen president’s son takes another key role

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MARCH 21 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Serdar Berdymukhamedov, the only son of Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov, has been appointed chairman of parliament’s legal affairs committee, an influential position. Pres. Berdymukhamedov started to promote his son last year, sparking claims that he was grooming him to be his heir. Mr Berdymukhamedov junior was first promoted to a senior position within the foreign ministry and was then, a short time later, made an MP.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)

Azerbaijan signs up another lobby group

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MARCH 22 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan has signed BGR Government Affairs to lobby for its interest in Washington, the Politico website report. Politico said that Azerbaijan was paying BGR Government Affairs a $50,000/month retainer for its services. Azerbaijan already has the Podesta Group on a $45,000/month retainer. Its critics have previously accused it of spending too much on lobbying while it limps through an economic downturn that has pushed the economy into a recession.

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(News report from Issue No. 322, published on March 27 2017)