JUNE 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Uzbekistan fined Said Abdurakhimov, a local journalist who reports critical stories, roughly $4,000 for supposedly spreading panic and working without the correct accreditation. The police detained Mr Abdurakhimov after he reported on the demolition of homes to build a new motorway.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek police have arrested 100 people working at the state customs committee on corruption charges, media reported. The mass arrests are likely to be linked with a grab for power in Uzbekistan rather than a genuine anti- corruption drive.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on July 2 2014)
JUNE 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan will almost double the amount of uranium it sends to South Korea, media reported after a trip by South Korean President Park Geun-hye. Ms Geun-hye has been on a tour of Central Asia, building relations and making business deals.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Plumbers working in the city of Qoqan, east Uzbekistan, have found a gold bar weighing 13kg, media reported. The gold bar, found in one of the city’s sewers, has an estimated value of $800,000. It is unclear where the gold bar came from although it is thought to date from before the Soviet Union.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 24 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Reports on the internet have surfaced which suggest that unrest may be brewing in Karakalpakstan, the remote western region of Uzbekistan. Karakalpakstan is officially an autonomous republic although in practice this mean little. Reports said protesters demonstrating at job cuts at a gas processing plant had been arrested.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The 21-year-old son of Gulnara Karimova, Islam Karimov, confirmed in an interview with Russian TV that his mother and sister are under house arrest in Tashkent.
Mr Karimov, who shares the same name as his grandfather Uzbek President Islam Karimov, is a student at Oxford University.
He said that, contrary to previous reports, his grandfather is not behind the detention of his mother.
“This is happening behind his back,” he told REN-TV. “Our enemies could have misrepresented the facts when briefing him.”
Mr Karimov’s version of events are very clear, then. He said that the family’s enemies are trying to enflame a family rift.
The interview is important because it gives an insider’s view on the apparent demise of Ms Karimova. She has not been heard of or seen since February when security agents apparently raided her apartment. Her closest business associates have apparently been charged with various business misdemeanours.
Over the past year Ms Karimova has had a spectacular fall from power. She controlled many of the country’s biggest businesses and lived a glamorous life as a fashion designer and pop star. Slowly these have been stripped away from her.
Information for outsiders has been scant, although it appears that she is the victims of inter-clan rivalries. One of her biggest enemies was said to be Rustam Inoyatov, head of the Uzbek security services.
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(News report from Issue No. 190, published on June 25 2014)
JUNE 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US-based lobby group Freedom House rated Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan as having the worst democratic framework in its ranking of 29 countries in eastern Europe and the ex-Soviet Union. Human rights group often complain about a lack of democracy and entrenched corruption in Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The World Bank agreed to give Uzbekistan a $260m loan to improve irrigation in its agriculture, media reported, angering human rights activists who accuse Uzbekistan of using child labour to pick cotton. Cotton is one of Uzbekistan’s biggest exports although many Western fashion brands refuse to use it in their clothing.
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(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The price of tickets on Tashkent’s bus, tram, trolleybus and metro systems increased by 20% on June 15 because of a rise in petrol prices, media reported. Petrol prices have been rising across Uzbekistan, frustrating locals. The Uzbek government sets petrol prices.
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(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
JUNE 16 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – South Korean president Park Geun-hye started a six day trip to Central Asia by visiting Tashkent.
There Ms Guen-hye pledged to increase cooperation in gas and solar power sector.
This was just the first stage in an important Central Asia trip for the South Korean leader. Ms Guen-hye now travels to Astana and then to Ashgabat laying down a serious marker in the region.
Central Asia is a natural region for South Korea to look to carve out an overseas trade foothold. Soviet dictator Josef Stalin ensured that this was the case.
In the 1930s, worried about their loyalty, Stalin moved hundreds of thousands of Koreans living in the east of the Soviet Union to Central Asia. Most settled around Tashkent or Almaty.
Now both Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan have large Korean minorities. Many ethnic Koreans are involved in business and some in politics. There are Korean restaurants in cities in Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and transport links with Seoul are well-established.
Ms Geun-hye is looking to leverage these ties to ensure that South Korea is able to tap into the region’s energy reserves as well as putting Korean companies in a good position to do business.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)
