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Armenia and Azerbaijan ranked as worst for LGBT people

MAY 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia and Azerbaijan are the worst places in Europe and the South Caucasus to be a homosexual, bisexual, lesbian or a transgender person, the IGLA-Europe lobby group said in a report focused on the legal framework that countries have developed for equality issues.

Of the 49 countries ranked in its index, Azerbaijan was ranked bottom with a score of just under 5%, followed by Russia with 6.5% and then Armenia with around 7%. Georgia was the second highest ranked former Soviet state in 30th position with a score of around 30%. Estonia was ranked in 21st position.

Azerbaijan has been cracking down on opposition groups and media over the past year. European officials have said that this political crackdown has also involved a more general crackdown on civil rights — including against the gay and the lesbian communities.

IGLA-Europe agreed.

“Azerbaijan’s LGBTI community continued to face severe challenges in 2015,” it said in its report. “Numer- ous violent attacks were carried out against LGBTI individuals; several murders were reported and investigated throughout the year.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Azerbaijan’s oil production drops

MAY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s oil production fell by 1.6% to 13.9m tonnes in Jan.-April 2016 compared to the same period last year, Reuters quoted an anonymous government source as saying. Azerbaijan’s oil production has been slowing for years, despite the government putting BP under increased pressure to stop the slow- down. Oil is the mainstay of the Azerbaijani economy and a drop in production means that government revenues fall.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Prices in Armenia fall, again

MAY 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Annualised inflation in Armenia for April measured -1.9%, the Statistics Committee said, the fifth consecutive month it has recorded price drops. Food prices shrank by 4.5%, while non-food prices remained stable. Price deflation is a sign of slow economic activity, a direct consequence of the economic malaise that has hit the South Caucasus and Central Asia. Remittances from Russia, which play an important role in these economies, have dried up.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Uzbek authorities investigate GM

MAY 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A GM Uzbekistan executive in Russia said that the authorities in Uzbekistan had opened an investigation into the company for losses incurred by its Russian division.

Yelena Kuznetsova, director of marketing at the Russian representative office for Ravon, GM Uzbekistan’s brand in Russia, refused to confirm to Reuters, though, whether a news report on the opposition website Uzmetronom that police had detained an executive at

“The company (GM Uzbekistan) is being investigated because the Russian distributor was unable to repay its debt,” she said.

An earlier report by Uzmetronom said police had detained Tokhirjon Jalilov, the former GM Uzbekistan CEO, for a scam involving Ravon cars bound for Russia.

GM Uzbekistan is one of the country’s most important joint ventures. The Uzbek government owns a 75% stake in the project. GM owns a 25% stake.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Leak shows Kazakh Pres. daughter owned stake in offshore company

ALMATY, MAY 9 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dariga Nazarbayeva, eldest daughter of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, owned a stake in an offshore company registered in the British Virgin Islands, a massive leak of data from a law firm in Panama showed.

The company called Asterry Holdings ltd was registered in the BVI in Sept. 2007 and struck off nearly five years later. Its offices were registered in Liechtenstein. It is unclear what assets the company ever held.

The revelation, though, is the second time that Kazakhstan’s ruling family has appeared in the Panama Papers. Ms Nazarbayeva’s son Nurali Aliyev, was revealed earlier this year to be the owner of a yacht and two other companies registered in BVI by Panama based Mossack Fonseca law company a the centre of the leak.

Both Ms Nazarbayeva and Mr Aliyev have high profiles in Kazakhstan. Ms Nazarbayeva is a deputy PM and has been spoken of as a future Kazakh president.

Mr Aliyev had been the deputy mayor of Astana until he quit abruptly in March so that he could concentrate on what he described as his business interests.

But with the economic outlook in Kazakhstan worsening, inflation rising and people losing their jobs, Mr Nazarbayev is treading carefully.

He is increasingly aware that he, his family and their supporters among the elite have to avoid being seen as excessively privileged and out-of-touch with ordinary people who have been struggling to survive what has become an increasingly tough and drawn out economic downturn.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Kazakh businessman buys mall

MAY 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh businessman Kairat Boranbayev said he had bought a 50% share in Capital Partners, a holding company that owns Almaty’s Esentai Tower and Mall. Mr Boranbayev, who also owns the Kairat football club and the McDonald’s franchise in Kazakhstan, jumped to 15th place in Forbes’ ranking of Kazakhstan’s richest people this year, with a net worth of $350m. His daughter, Alima, married Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s grandson, Aisultan, in 2013.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

CASA-1000 officially launched in Tajik capital

DUSHANBE, MAY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Leaders from Tajikistan, Afghanistan and Pakistan flew to Dushanbe to officially launch the start of construction of the CASA- 1000 project, which they hope will give regional trade a boost.

CASA-1000 is the $1.2b World Bank backed project that policy makers hope will transform the economies of Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, bolster stability in Afghanistan and boost power supplies in Pakistan.

The plan is simple — to build an electricity supply route from hydro- power stations in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, across Afghanistan and into Pakistan. But it has its detractors. Many analysts have argued that Afghanistan is simply too unstable to host a network of transmission lines and that power generation capacities in Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan are too temperamental.

Still, in Dushanbe, at the official ceremony to kick off production, the leaders were upbeat.

Tajikistan’s President Emomali Rakhmon, hosted the ceremony. He said that the project would work and that it would have a number of positive side effects.

“This will promote solutions to a number of social, economic and environmental protection problems in all four countries,” he was quoted by media as saying.

The CASA-1000 transmission line will run for 1,222km and should be completed by 2018. It will transmit 1,300 megawatts of electricity, most of it to Pakistan.

Also at the ceremony were Afghan Chief Executive Abdullah Abdullah, Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon, and Kyrgyz Prime Minister Sooronbai Jeenbekov.

Western diplomats conceived the plan a few years ago as part of a new north-south Silk Road, although it has been the various local leaders with finance from the World Bank who have pushed it through.

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(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Editorial: Corruption in Georgia

MAY 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian PM Giorgi Kvirikashvili said at an anti-corruption conference in London last week that he would “explore” the possibility of setting up a database in Georgia that would mean all companies will need to reveal their secret beneficiary owners.

If Mr Kvirikashvili is serious then now is the time for his to move and fast. He has a real opportunity to chisel a niche for Georgia and to set the pace as a global leader in the fight against corruption.

It’s a theme that is very in-vogue at the moment and also one that should play nicely to audiences in the West that Georgia is trying to impress. These are mainly NATO members and European Union member states. Georgia wants to join both clubs and if Mr Kvirikashvili can fund, organise and manage a meaningful database that improves transparency in business, he should impress his potential suitors.

Mr Kvirikashvili needs to be brave and move from exploring options on setting up a database outlining companies’ real beneficiaries to actually doing it.

ENDS

(Editorial from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

MP quits Georgian Dream

MAY 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armazi Akhvlediani, who had been a rising star of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition, quit the party and accused it of selling out its supporters. Mr Akhvlediani’s resignation will shake the Georgian Dream coalition just five months before an election which is expected to be a hard-fought affair against several opposition parties.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)

Kazakh PM approves land reform commission

MAY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh PM Karim Massimov approved the members of a newly- established commission that will discuss reform of the land code. Bakhtyzhan Sagintayev, vice PM will head the commission which includes politicians, businessmen and members of civil society. The proposed amendments to the land code triggered weeks of protests throughout Kazakhstan and forced Pres. Nursultan Nazarbayev to delay introducing them.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 280, published on May 13 2016)