MAY 31 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan unveiled a new monument marking a famine between 1931-33, blamed on the forced collectivisation by the Soviet Union of the nomadic Kazakhs, that killed an estimated 1.5 m people. The monument, set in a central park in Almaty, shows a Kazakh woman carrying an emaciated boy in her arms.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
MAY 29 2017 (The Bulletin) — Tengizchevroil, Kazakhstan’s largest oil producer, briefly suspended production after a toxic substance was released at its plant. The company, owned by Chevron, ExxonMobil, Lukoil and Kazmunaigas, restarted operations a few hours later. It said that there had been no injuries or damage to equipment from the spill which is blamed on a powercut.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
MAY 31 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s Prosecutor officially dropped a libel lawsuit against the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty. Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev had asked for the lawsuit to be dropped a fortnight ago, shortly after meeting the RFE/RL president. The original lawsuit had focused on reporting by RFE/RL which the Presidential Administration had said was biased against it. Another lawsuit against the Bishkek independent website zanoza.kg has not been dropped. Free speech activists have said that Kyrgyzstan is turning increasingly authoritarian.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
MAY 30 2017 (The Bulletin) — Kazakh human rights activists said that a law being discussed in parliament is designed to prevent independent candidates from running in presidential elections. The new law, when it is passed, will block “non-serious” candidates from running. Kazakhstan has never held an election considered free or fair by international observers. President Nazarbayev won an election in 2015 with 98% of the vote.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
MAY 31 2017 (The Bulletin) — Former Kyrgyz PM Igor Chudinov and former economy minister Akylbek Japarov are being investigated for corruption, media reported quoting officials. Both men are currently MPs for the Bir Bol party which is part of the ruling coalition. The Kyrgyz Prosecutor and the National Security Committee said that Mr Chudinov, PM in 2007-9, and Mr Japarov were under investigation for corruption linked to a $2.9m fund for agricultural development in 2009.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
MAY 30 2017 (The Bulletin) — Five more Azerbaijani banks are currently failing to meet their capitalisation requirements, Rufat Aslani, head of the Financial Markets Supervisory Authority told media, suggesting more weakness in the sector.
In May, Azerbaijan’s biggest bank, the International Bank of Azerbaijan, which is 80% owned by the government and has a market share of around 60%, said that it needed to restructure its debt to stave off bankruptcy.
Now, after a series of small banks merged or went bankrupt in 2016, it has emerged that five mid-sized banks are still under the special supervision of Azerbaijan’s Financial Market Supervisory Authority.
“Today, under our supervision, there are five banks, capitalisation programs of which should be completed by mid-2017,” media quoted Mr Aslani as saying at a banking conference in Baku.
Mr Aslani did not name the banks but the Business New Europe magazine named three of them as Unibank, AtaBank and DemirBank — all mid-sized banks. None of the banks responded to requests for comment. The EBRD owns a 25% stake in DemirBank and Dutch development finance company FMO owns a 10% stake.
The Central Bank has imposed increased capitalisation rules to strengthen the sector. A recession in Russia and a collapse in oil prices since 2014 have halved the value of the Azerbaijani manat and heavily dented the banking sector.
Analysts had warned that Azerbaijani banks have been too relaxed about lending.
The currency devaluation and poor economic conditions have triggered a surge in bad debt which Moody’s, the rating agency, said stood at 30% of the banking sector’s loan portfolio.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
MAY 29 2017 (The Bulletin) — Irkut, the Russian airplane maker, said that it had signed up three companies to buy its new medium- haul passenger aircraft MC-21, including Air Kyrgyzstan . The aircraft, which only completed its maiden flight on May 29, is supposed to be Russia’s answer to the Airbus and Boeing planes. The other companies that have, according to the manufacturers, agreed to buy the MC-21 are Russian airlines Aeroflot and Utair. Separately, Zhamshitbek Kalilov, the Kyrgyz transport minister said Air Kyrgyzstan would buy three new plane to fly on domestic routes.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
JUNE 1 2017 (The Bulletin) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) approved a $500m loan to Uzbekistan to build 29,000 affordable houses in rural areas. The ADB has said that housing stock in Uzbekistan’s rural areas is particularly poor. Since Shavkat Mirziyoyev took over as president in 2016, institutional development banks have been lining up to lend Uzbekistan money for various projects.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
TASHKENT, MAY 25 2017 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s government banned 34 computer games because it said that they were too violent and corrupted their users.
Investors and Western analysts will be concerned that the ban betrays an authoritarian streak in Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s administration but gamers in Tashkent suggested that it smacked more of a lack of understanding and incompetence.
The surprise announcement banned violent computer games such as Grand Theft Auto and Call of Duty but also covered less aggressive games such as The Sims which focuses on parenthood.
The Uzbek government press release said that the games were a threat “to the political stability of the country, civil peace, interethnic and interreligious harmony”.
Mr Mirziyoyev has been Uzbek president since September 2016 when the authoritarian Islam Karimov, who banned pool halls, died. Mr Mirziyoyev has made a virtue of appearing less authoritarian than his predecessor, talking up the possibility of currency liberalisation and opening up to foreign investors.
In Tashkent, kiosks selling computer games continued to trade as normal with shopkeepers claiming that they hadn’t even heard of the ban. And there was also a sense in internet cafes that the government didn’t understand gaming culture.
One gamer who wished to remain anonymous said that most people download their games over the internet.
“This ban won’t have any effect,” he said. “Real gamers don’t visit internet cafes as the computers there aren’t powerful enough for the games on the banned list.”
Another gamer said the ban was “feckless” and “stupid”. He said the government had already tried and failed to ban hundreds of films as well as Valentine’s Day, Halloween and Christmas.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)
MAY 30 2017 (The Bulletin) — Analysts accused Kazakhstan of breaking a pledge made to OPEC that it would reduce its oil production in line with an agreed strategy. Data from the International Energy Agency in March showed Kazakh production rising by 40,000 barrels per day to 1.718m barrels per day, despite a pledged decrease. Analysts said that increased production at Kashagan triggered the increase.
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(News report from Issue No. 331, published on June 5 2017)