SEPT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh government has said it is considering cutting taxes for oil producers to encourage them to raise output. Some energy companies operating in Kazakhstan, especially the smaller ones, have said they will not produce oil until prices recover. Kazakhstan has cut its projected oil production in 2015 by 1m tonnes to 79.5m tonnes.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty said that police had raided the home of journalist Islam Shikhali, one of its freelance contributors based in Baku. The West has criticised Azerbaijan for pressuring media. RFE/RL has closed its office in Baku.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
OCT. 2 2015, TBILISI (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s main opposition TV channel Rustavi2 said it will have to stop broadcasting within days unless it finds more cash quickly after a court seized a controlling stake in the company.
The court blocked the sale of the 51% stake to a relative of a former defence minister, a sale that had been considered vital to keep Rustavi2 afloat after an earlier decision linked to a row with a former shareholder handed control of the TV channel’s assets to the authorities.
At a press conference at the TV channel’s HQ in Tbilisi, Rustavi2 director Nika Gvaramia said that its closure was imminent.
“The current government, lead by Ivanishvili promises democracy, but they have finally done what they have wanted to do for the past four years — shut Rustavi2 down,” he said.
Bidzina Ivanishvili is Georgia’s richest man and architect of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition.
Since winning a parliamentary election in 2012 and a presidential election a year later, Mr Ivanishvili and Georgian Dream have been trying to purge Georgia of remnants of former president Mikheil Saakashvili and his allies.
And analysts said that Rustavi2, one of only three main TV channels, has long been in his sights.
Maia Mikashavidze, a Tbilisi-based professor of mass communication, said Rustavi2 is considered one of the few voices critical of the current government and that the decision by the court to block the sale of the stake did carry a political undertone.
“Rustavi2’s operations are seriously threatened and may stall any time because the station is short of cash because of insufficient ad sales,” Ms Mikashavidze said.
“This limits access to alternative views and facts for a huge numbers of viewers who rely on Rustavi2 for that service.”
In Kutaisi, hundreds of people rallied in front of parliament to demand that the government take action to protect Rustavi2.
The US government, which has previously criticised Mr Ivanishvili and his supporters for their excessive zeal in prosecuting people and companies linked to Mr Saakashvili, said that it was concerned about the case.
“We do not like to see any kind of limitation on this pluralistic media environment.” US Ambassador Ian Kelley said in a statement.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia moved a step closer to ditch- ing prison sentences for people found with a small amount of marijuana after a parliamentary committee backed the proposal. The legal affairs committee said that it still wanted marijuana use to be illegal but not punishable with a prison sentence. Parliament is likely to vote on the issue later this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
OCT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan security forces killed two men they said were linked to former deputy minister Gen. Abdukhalim Nazarzoda. Tajik authorities have accused Nazarzoda of plotting attacks on police checkpoints that killed more than two dozen people in Dushanbe and a nearby town last month. Nazarzoda was killed during a special operation.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
OCT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The OSCE, Europe’s main election and media rights watchdog, sent a note to the Kazakh government asking it not to cut access to news website which have been critical of the authorities. The OSCE has previously criticised Kazakhstan for is media rights record.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The US embassy in Tashkent said that an unidentified man threw two homemade grenades over the wall of the compound.
One of the grenades exploded but didn’t injure anybody, the embassy said in a statement. No group has claimed responsibility. The embassy closed immediately after the attack although it reopened the following day.
“At approximately 7:30 am on Monday, September 28 an unidenti- fied assailant tossed two improvised incendiary devices onto embassy grounds,” the embassy said in a state- ment.
“One of the incendiary devices exploded. Immediately following the explosion the embassy went on lock- down. No one was injured in the blast.”
The attack will be a major concern for the US. Governments in Central Asia have spoken of the increased threat from radical Islam, although some of the evidence has been dis- puted. It’s still unclear if this attack was linked to radical Islam or to something else but it would have been unsettling.
In 2004, car bombs targeted both the US and Israeli embassies. Two security guards were killed outside the Israeli embassy.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Highlighting Azerbaijan’s enhanced role in the global energy system, foreign minister Elmar Mammadyarov said in a speech at the UN General Assembly in New York that the country had become a “crucial player” in the system. Europe wants to increase imports of gas from Azerbaijan.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 29 2015, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s High Court decreed the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) a terrorist organisation and banned it, wiping the only real opposition party from the country.
The high court statement published by the Khovar state news agency accused the IRPT of committing crimes of terrorist acts and spreading provocative materials.
Pressure on the IRPT has been building.
The General Prosecutor’s Office earlier accused the IRPT leadership of involvement in double attacks on police checkpoints last month that killed two dozen people. It said the mastermind of the attacks had been deputy defence minister Abduhalim Nazarzoda.
Police also detained Buzurgmehr Yorov, an IRPT lawyer, after he started defending 13 top party members arrested for the attacks. Mr Yorov has reportedly been charged with fraud and corruption crimes.
Earlier this year, the Tajik authorities also prosecuted Group 24, another political party that it deemed to be plotting against it.
An analyst who declined to be named said: “It is the sign of zero tolerance of any kind of political opposition, no matter whether they are religious or secular. Tajikistan has now become a one-party state.”
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
OCT. 1 2015, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — The collapse in the value of the Kazakh tenge over the past 18 months has not only hurt businesses and consumers in Kazakhstan. Charities that collect cash in tenge but accrue costs in US dollars and other foreign currencies are also having to cut services — often life-saving ones.
In an interview with The Conway Bulletin, Ilyas Kubriyanov, head of the UnityKZ charity, said that the cost of sending ill children abroad for treatment had spiralled.
“We are having problems, of course, as foreign hospitals invoice in dollars but we collect 90% of our donations in tenge,” he said. “Consequently, the cost of treatments is increasing.”
UnityKZ helps pay for children who have cancer or other serious illnesses to travel abroad for treatment. Mr Kubriyanov, who set up the charity in 2009, said that there are currently 10 children waiting for treatment.
“Because of the currency situation, the money we collect loses its impact,” he said. “Everything has become much more expensive.”
The Kazakh Central Bank released the tenge from its US dollar peg in August, triggering a sharp devaluation. It is trading at around 272/$1 compared to 188/$1 on Aug. 19.
It also devalued its currency in February 2014. The tenge is now worth nearly half its Feb. 2014 value.
A sharp drop in oil prices and a recession in Russia has battered economies in Central Asia and the South Caucasus. Statistics show unemployment and inflation rising but the impact is felt across Kazakh society.
“Recently, we asked parents of sick children to think about another type of treatment to have or another country to aim for,” Mr Kubriyanov said. “One child was transferred to China recently, but they also have some difficulties with their currency there.”
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)