OCT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan will complete the merger of its private pension schemes into a single national programme by the middle of next year, media quoted the Central Bank chief, Kairat Kelimbetov, as saying. The original plan had been to merge 11 pension funds in Kazakhstan into a single $21b programme by the end of 2013.
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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
OCT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Relations between Azerbaijan and Iran have worsened over the past couple of years. The two neighbours have rowed over alleged spy rings, ties with Israel, assassination attempts and cross border shootouts.
Over the last couple of months, with the arrival of new Iranian president Hassan Rouhani, there has been something of a thaw. He’s been more open to improving strained international relations than his predecessor.
Now, though, a fresh and bitter row has opened up on an unlikely front. Polo, a sport played by kings and the super-rich on horseback, has generated a fierce argument between Iran and Azerbaijan.
Azerbaijan has applied to Unesco to have polo listed as an indigenous sport. They have said that polo derived in the country. Iran disagrees.
“We will tell Unesco that the traditional game is a common element that should not be registered exclusively in the name of a single country,” official Iranian media quoted the deputy head of Iran’s Cultural Heritage and Tourism Organisation, Mehdi Hojjat, as saying.
Art dating back 500 years from ancient Persia shows men clearly enjoying a game of polo. They ride horses and hit balls with long sticks.
For Azerbaijan to claim it as theirs is a remarkable power play.
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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
OCT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan has asked UNESCO to list polo as its indigenous sport, triggering a row with Iran, media reported. Relations between the two neighbours have worsened over the past couple of years although there had recently been an improvement under new Iranian leader Hassan Rouhani.
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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
OCT. 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Fuel shortages are spreading across Uzbekistan, including in Tashkent, media reported. Photos reportedly showing drivers queuing for fuel in the Uzbek capital are important because it had previously been less effected by shortages than the rest of the country. The Uzbek government denies there are fuel supply problems.
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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
OCT. 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Lara Fabian, a Belgian-Italian singer, pulled out of a concert in Tashkent organised by Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov. Ms Fabian said she pulled out because she was concerned about the Uzbek government’s human rights record.
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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
OCT. 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s been a difficult year for Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov and, perhaps, his heir.
Her sister Lola Karimova-Tillyaeva disowned her and told the world that Ms Karimova’s chances of becoming president were almost nil. She’s also had her property seized in Europe and become the focus of a money laundering investigation.
Now Ms Karimova has also had to deal with the humiliation of watching Lara Fabian, a Belgian-Italian singer, pull out of a concert she had organised in Tashkent.
On her Facebook site, Ms Fabian said that when she found out who the event organiser was, she quit.
She said she had been shocked and upset by criticism from media which made her out to be a stooge of the Uzbek government. Human rights groups accuse the Uzbek authorities of torturing prisoners and dissenters.
“My career and commitments reflect my values and I am shocked that you would think I can endorse a system that does not respect human rights,” she wrote.
Clearly performing for Ms Karimova or any other members of the Uzbek elite is poor PR for a European singer.
And Ms Karimova took the news personally. She vented on her twitter account that foreign forces had persuaded Ms Fabian to pull out of the concert.
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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
OCT. 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan increased its state-imposed cap on fuel prices by 7 tenge to 117 tenge ($0.76) per litre of 92-octane petrol. Prices for the lower grade 80-octane petrol and diesel were left unchanged.
The closure of the refinery in Shymkent for scheduled repairs has triggered localised fuel shortages in the weeks prior to the price hike, scheduled for November.
In Southern Kazakhstan fuel was sold only through coupons and in limited quantities. Lines of cars queued at petrol stations that quickly ran out of 92-octane fuel and supplied only the 80-octane version.
Fuel price rises hurt consumers and tension is brewing in Kazakhstan.
According to the Kazakhstan Fuel Association (KFA), a fuel industry lobby group, routine repairs at the Shymkent refinery caused the shortage. It is only one of three refineries in Kazakhstan.
The government has instead blamed a general global increase in oil for the rise on the petrol price cap.
Ordinary drivers are even more frustrated. They blame owners of petrol stations for holding back supplies until the fuel price cap had been raised.
They’ve also had to stomach a higher price increase than originally flagged up.
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(News report from Issue No. 158, published on Oct. 30 2013)
OCT. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s government has complained to Russia about the apparent mistreatment of one of its nationals by police in Moscow, media reported.
The complaint is important because it sets Azerbaijan at loggerheads, once again, with Russia over the sensitive topic of migrant workers.
Police in Moscow arrested Orhan Zeylanov, a 25-year-old migrant worker from Azerbaijan, on Oct. 15 for the apparent murder of a Russian man a few days earlier.
The murder was blamed for triggering a riot in a Moscow suburb, the worst anti-migrant violence for years.
TV footage from the arrest of Mr Zeylanov showed police kicking him. The TV commentator also referred to him as “the killer” before any formal court proceeding had started.
The row renews the debate over how migrant workers are treated in Russia.
It also, importantly, focuses attention on relations between Azerbaijan and Russia.
These have grown steadily more strained over the past few years. Azerbaijan has challenged Russia’s gas dominance and created an alternative energy supply route for EU states.
Azerbaijan has also become cosy with the United States. In short, its energy wealth has allowed it to act increasingly independently from Russia.
Compared to other former Soviet countries, remittances from workers in Russia make up only a small proportion of Azerbaijan’s economy, 3% according to the World Bank, but it is still important.
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(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)
OCT. 21 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Highlighting just how dangerous driving is in Kazakhstan, media reported that the Pulitzer Center in New York rated Kazakh roads as amongst the most deadly in the world outside Africa. Kazakhstan averages 21.9 deaths per 100,000 people every year. Comparatively, this is seven times more than Sweden.
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(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)
OCT. 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A mob of 200 people attacked the office of Manas Resources, an Australian mining company, in southern Kyrgyzstan where it is developing a gold mine, Reuters reported. Over the past few years, disgruntled nationalists have targeted foreign-owned mines to win concessions from companies and to destabilise the government.
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(News report from Issue No. 157, published on Oct. 23 2013)
