AUG. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia will host two naval exercises this year with the Azerbaijani and Kazakh navies, media reported quoting senior Russian officials. The drills will take place in the Caspian Sea. The first will be a bilateral exercise involving Azerbaijan and Russia. The second will be trilateral and also include Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)
AUG. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Russian military court sentenced soldier Valery Permyakov to 10 years in jail for desertion and then handed him over to Armenian officials who are building a case to try him for the stabbing to death of an entire family earlier this year. Permyakov had been serving at the Gyumri military base in Armenia, one of Russia’s largest overseas bases.
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(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)
AUG. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – An explosion in Turkey on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars-Ezurum gas pipeline has raised worries that Kurdish fighters and other factions may target energy transport infrastructure carrying oil and gas from the Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea to Europe. Media reported an explosion on a remote section of the pipeline in east Turkey.
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(News report from Issue No. 242, published on August 7 2015)
AUG. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Aktobe, west Kazakhstan, jailed eight men for 3-6 years for spreading Islamic extremist propaganda, media reported. Kazakhstan is becoming increasingly sensitive to the spread of Islamic propaganda. It worries that the radical IS group in Syria and Iraq is actively recruiting from Central Asia.
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(News report from Issue No. 242, published on Aug. 7 2015)
JULY 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – TBILISI — Around 1,500 Russian soldiers and dozens of pieces of artillery and missile systems started a major military exercise across the North Caucasus and the breakaway Georgian region of South Ossetia, Georgia’s government said.
The Georgian government described the war games, which came around a week after South Ossetian forces extended a de facto border into Georgia, as a major act of provocation by Russia that could destabilise the region.
“This provocative act of the Russian P Federation represents an infringement of Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity,” Georgia’s foreign ministry said in a statement.
It said the Georgian military would respond if provoked.
Russia hasn’t commented but the South Ossetian land-grab, that included taking control of a 1.6km section of a pipeline operated by BP which pumps oil from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea, and the alleged military exercises have created the worse stand-off between Georgia and Russia since they fought a war in 2008.
Earlier in July, Russia said that NATO exercises in Georgia, which included a contingent of US soldiers, would have “explosive consequences”.
Georgia said that the Russian 2-week long military exercise began on July 15 across the North Caucasus and South Ossetia.
Georgia is pushing to join NATO, especially since Russia annexed Crimea last year and, allegedly, sent its forces into eastern Ukraine to help rebel forces fight a civil war against the Ukrainian military.
Europe and the United States have been supportive of Georgia’s Western orientation, but also stand-offish on allowing Georgia to join NATO.
Donald Tusk, the European Council President, was in Georgia for a pre-planned visit. He detoured to the area where South Ossetia had extended its control.
He praised the Georgian government for its restraint.
“The Georgian government met it firmly, but calmly, he said. Our goal is not to yield to these provocations and not to give anyone any pretext for escalation,” Mr Tusk said.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – TBILISI — Georgia’s parliament approved the appointment of Vakhtang Gomelauri, the current minister of interior, as head of the new State Security Service.
Its a controversial move as the State Security Service, which will take over most of Georgia’s intelligence gathering duties, was created to break up the power of the interior ministry.
Before becoming the interior minister, Mr Gomelauri was the head of the bodyguard team protecting Georgia’s most powerful man Bidzina Ivanishvili who set up the ruling Georgian Dream coalition.
And Georgia’s opposition have already accused the government of turning the position into a political football with Mr Gomelauria’s appointment.
“Gomelauri’s appointment shows that setting up the State Security Service to depoliticise security related matters is an absolute farce,” said Chiora Taktakishvili, an MP for the United National Movement during the vote in parliament.
As head of the new State Security Service, Mr Gomelauri will be in charge of defending Georgia’s borders, fighting terrorism, and preventing corruption.
Lincoln Mitchell, a political scientist, told the Bulletin it was, always unlikely someone without a close relationship with Mr Ivanishvili would have been appointed to the position. He also said, though, that he thought the creation of the agency was a step in the right direction.
“The Georgian Dream government has made Georgia more free than the previous regime, but has not moved as quickly as it should have to dismantle the tools that their predecessors used to limit freedoms,” he said.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliamentary speaker Davit Usupashvili travelled to NATO HQ in Brussels to urge for its membership of the Western military alliance to be sped up. “I told our partners very clearly, unequivocally that Georgia is ready for more,” he told Georgian media.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kyrgyz National Security Committee said it had prevented two attacks planned by the extremist group IS. Kyrgyz special forces said it killed six men during two gunfights in Bishkek. Allegedly, their targets were a square in Bishkek and the nearby Kant airbase, leased to Russia’s military.
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(News report from Issue No. 241, published on July 23 2015)
JULY 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a meeting of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Ufa, Russia, Uzbek leader Islam Karimov spoke unusually warmly about relations with Russia.
Mr Karimov veers from near- hostility towards Russia to extreme warmth.
Russian television showed Russian President Vladimir Putin greeting Mr Karimov.
“You haven’t been here on a state visit for a long time,” he said.
Mr Karimov shook his hand and replied: “Whatever disputes we may have, nobody can make Russia and Uzbekistan quarrel as we have common interests.”
Mr Karimov’s last state visit to Russia was in April 2013. Most Central Asia and South Caucasus leaders, other than those from Georgia and Turkmenistan, are semi-regular visitors to Moscow.
The Uzbek head of state’s manoeuvres are understandable.
Uzbekistan may be improving its relations with the West, especially with regards to allowing NATO countries to ship their military kit out of Afghanistan, but Russia is still the regional superpower and Mr Karimov needs its help economically as well as to bolster security along its porous southern border where he says the Taliban are massing.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
DUSHANBE, JULY 12/13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Indian PM Narendra Modi’s grand tour of Central Asia ended with a visit to Tajikistan, once again sparking the decade long rumour that India would lease the Ayni airbase near Dushanbe.
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website reported that Mr Modi and Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon visited the Ayni military base 15km outside Dushanbe as well as a 50-bed military field hospital India helped set up last year, ramping up speculation an agreement was about to be signed.
Instead, the two leaders signed far less eye-catching deals on culture and education.
India has been looking to lease an airbase in Central Asia for years.
It helped renovate the air base at Ayni in 2003 but appears to have been blocked from renting the base, possibly by Russia or China, Tajikistan’s close allies.
Earlier on the trip in Russia, Mr Modi had signed a deal for India to join the China and Russia led Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) military/economic group focused on Central Asia.
India wants to start competing with China for influence over Central Asia and also for access to its various energy and metal deposits.
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(News report from Issue No. 240, published on July 16 2015)
