MARCH 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The price of fuel in Kyrgyzstan has increased by as much as 6.7% since the beginning of the year, media reported. An official from an industry lobby group blamed increased import prices from Russia for the rise. Fuel price rises, especially sharp ones, can generate discontent.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 25 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Prince Harry, third in line to the English throne, spent a long weekend in mid-March skiing at the Kazakh ski resort of Shymbulak, the Sun newspaper reported.
Grainy photos later appeared of Prince Harry posing for photos at the bottom of the slope. He apparently flew to the top of the piste in a hired helicopter.
By design or by accident, Prince Harry’s trip to Shymbulak is the best PR that the resort could have hoped for. Only last month, Kazakhstan unveiled its bid to host the Winter Olympics in 2022. Shymbulak was the centrepiece of this bid.
Shymbulak is still a curious choice for Prince Harry and his girlfriend Cressida Bonas to choose for a weekend break. It’s a long way from Europe, the jet-leg is heavy and, despite Kazakh PR proclaiming the opposite, the runs are limited compared to the Alps.
Even Kazakhstan’s wealthy prefer skiing in St Moritz and Chamonix.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Disagreements over the pagan Nowruz celebration, marking the beginning of spring have highlighted fault lines in Kyrgyz society.
While the state-affiliated Spiritual Administration of Muslims of Kyrgyzstan (SAMK) views celebrating Nowruz as an acceptable part of pre-Islamic Kyrgyz tradition, more hard-line clerics, perhaps with a more Arab influence, called on believers to ignore the holiday completely in the run up to March 21.
The debate brings into focus the sharp rise of nontraditional Islam, imported from the Arab world, in Central Asia.
Nowruz — a key event in the calendar of all five Central Asian states and also Afghanistan, Iran and Turkey — is not celebrated in other parts of the Muslim world.
In February, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev expressed alarm at signs of “Arab culture, including the appearance of women wearing hijab, something alien to the gentler Kyrgyz traditional Islam.
As well as a gulf between the views of secularists like Mr Atambayev and practicing Muslims, Kyrgyzstan is also witnessing what a local religion expert called a “battle for control of mosques between different Jamaats.
As if to illustrate the point, last month the deputy Imam of a mosque in Kara-Suu, a southern city, was arrested for organising radical activity.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Turkmenistan have imprisoned a seventh man for refusing to sign up for conscription, the Forum 18 website reported.
Forum 18 reported that Pavel Paymov, a 23-year-old Jehovah’s Witness member, was sent to one year in prison in January for dodging conscription.
According to the article, Turkmenistan does not offer an alternative to military service. This, apparently, breaks international human rights laws.
Turkmenistan’s constitution calls on men to serve for two years in the military between the ages of 18 and 27.
Earlier this month, Turkmenistan mobilised its reserve forces after an attack on its border with Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Several thousand people demonstrated against the government’s new pension scheme that means that people born after 1974 have to pay 5% of their salary into a central pot. The demonstration was the biggest against the scheme for some time, indicating how passionately people feel about it. There have been several protests this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 177, published on March 26 2014)
MARCH 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Hundreds of people living in a town in the western Kazakh province of Mangistau protested against soaring joblessness after reading an interview by their mayor in which he boasted of unemployment of only 0.4%, media reported. Inhabitants said unemployment was nearer 40%.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Kyrgyzstan dropped Uzbek as a language that secondary school students can sit their graduation exams in, media reported. Kyrgyzstan’s education ministry said the number of students choosing to sit their exams in Uzbek was just too low. Human rights campaigners have said that Uzbeks have been increasingly marginalised in Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A rare admission from a Kazakh insider that the country’s energy policies may not be working hints at future fuel price increases, analysts have said.
Sauat Mynbayev, chairman of state-owned KazMunaiGas, said sending Kazakh oil to China to be processed into fuel and then re-importing it to make up for a shortfall in domestic refining capacity has become too expensive.
“The transit operations regarding the refining of Kazakhstan’s oil in China has become unprofitable,” media quoted him as saying.
Analysts immediately unpicked his statement. What this meant, they said, was that fuel prices would rise shortly.
And that, as the government knows, will be deeply unpopular.
Oil-rich Kazakhstan has a chronic lack of refining capacity. The three refineries at Shymkent, Pavlodar and Atyrau are often under repair. New refineries are only scheduled to come on-stream in five or six years time.
To make up for the shortfall, Kazakhstan is importing refined fuel from China and Russia. It is also sending unrefined fuel into China for processing and then shipping it back over the border.
Added to this complex arrangement is Kazakhstan’s 20% currency devaluation in February which makes imports even more expensive.
Mr Mynbayev has just been made head of Kazakhstan’s Greco-Roman wrestling federation, a position that underlines his insider credentials.
For an insider to admit a policy problem is almost unheard of in Kazakhstan. As analysts have now warned, expect fuel price increases.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — PromMashKomplekt, a plant in northern Kazakhstan that manufactures wheels for trains, has said it may have to make redundant 540 employees because of a contract row with a subsidiary of Temir Zholy, the Kazakh national railway, media reported. The row highlights the relatively precarious state of Kazakh industry.
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(News report from Issue No. 176, published on March 19 2014)
MARCH 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — If it materialises, it would be quite a publicity coup for Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev.
Bernie Ecclestone, the unofficial ringmaster of Formula One, told British newspapers that plans were crystallising to hold a race in Baku in 2015 or 2016.
“We’re going to Azerbaijan,” Mr Ecclestone told British newspapers.
“The people out there [in Azerbaijan] are talking about holding a race in 2015. That may be a bit soon, unless it’s at the end of the season, that’s a possibility. But 2016 is more likely.”
This must be music to Mr Aliyev’s ears. As Azerbaijan has grown increasingly rich on energy wealth, Mr Aliyev has used various sports events and competitions to promote the country.
Next year, Azerbaijan hosts the inaugural European Games, it has placed a bid to hold the summer Olympics and also to stage the European Champions League final.
The glamour of Formula One, though, is unrivalled and Mr Aliyev would no doubt welcome it to Baku. Formula One is also one of the most watched TV sports around the World.
Mr Ecclestone has been trying to broaden the venues of Formula One races over the past few years. India and Malaysia now host their own race and Russia will host a Formula One race this year in Sochi.
If Azerbaijan does host a race in 2016, though, it will become the country with the smallest economy to host a Grand Prix.
Still, this does also come with pitfalls.
Human rights demonstrators in Bahrain targeted their demonstrations around the Formula One race in 2011. They may also take their opportunity in Baku too.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)
