Author Archives: Editor

Anaklia partners sue Georgian government

TBILISI/JULY 29 (The Bulletin) — The Anaklia Development Consortium (ADC) and one of its key investors filed separate arbitration claims against the Georgia government for cancelling its deal to build the new Black Sea port.

ADC and Bob Meijer, the investor, said that they are claiming a combined $1b for lost earnings linked to the project.

The Georgian government tore up the contract with the ADC in January because it said that ADC had failed to secure sufficient financial backing to build the new port, supposed to become Georgia’s principal entry and exit for goods being transported to and from China and Europe.

ADC, though, said that the contract was ripped up for political reasons. One of the main backers of the ADC project was, Mamuka Khazaradze, the founder of TBC Bank. TBC Bank is one of Georgia’s biggest high street banks and is listed on the London Stock Exchange but last year Mr Khazaradze was arrested for corruption, allegations he has said are politically motivated.

ADC said that this row between Mr Khazaradze and the Georgian government tarnished the project.

“The Government deliberately acted to ensure that ADC could not succeed with project development. In this instance the Government abused its power because the ruling party and its leader decided the project’s success was contrary to their own political and economic interests,” ADC said in a statement.

The statement also said that the ADC was bringing its action through the International Court of Arbitration of the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) in Paris and that Mr Meijer was pursuing his claim through the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) in Washington.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Kyrgyzstan decrees day of mourning for coronavirus victims

Leave a Reply

JULY 25 (The Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s President Sooronbai Jeenbekov said that July 30 would be a day of mourning for people who had died from Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. The country has recorded 36,719 infections and 1,409 deaths. Many of the people who have died have been medical staff, infected because they had been wearing inadequate PPE.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Russia sends coronavirus kits to Tajikistan

Leave a Reply

JULY 29 (The Bulletin) — Russia sent 50,000 coronavirus testing kits to Tajikistan to help it track and combat the spread of the virus, Russian media reported. Tajikistan, which declared its first coronavirus case a month after its neighbours, has now recorded 7,495 cases of the coronavirus and 61 deaths.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Kyrgyz film showing corruption aired on Youtube

Leave a Reply

JULY 28 (The Bulletin) — The producers of a film showing corruption by Kyrgyz officials said that the authorities tried to block the film’s release. Meken shows a stand-off between a Chinese mining company and Kyrgyz villagers. It also shows bribes being paid by Chinese workers to Kyrgyz government officials for breaking various environmental rules. Although the film is fiction, it is rooted in real life events. The director of Meken, Medetbek Jailov, said that the film was supposed to be aired earlier in the year but was blocked because the security service had demanded that corruption scenes were removed. Instead, the producers will release the film, for free, on Youtube.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Azerbaijani authorities arrest opposition leaders

Leave a Reply

JULY 28 (The Bulletin) — The authorities in Azerbaijan sent opposition leader Mammad Ibrahim to pretrial detention ahead of his trial for organising an illegal rally. Police detained Mr Ibrahim and around 30 other opposition activists linked to the Azerbaijan Popular Front Party at a protest on July 14/15 that called for intensified military action against Armenia around the disputed region Nagorno-Karabakh. Opposition groups have accused the government of using the protests and anti-coronavirus lockdowns to target opposition activists.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Armenia and Uzbekistan keeps interest rates steady

Leave a Reply

JULY 23/28 (The Bulletin) — The Central Banks of Armenia and Uzbekistan kept their interest rates unchanged, despite pressure to cut the cost of borrowing to help businesses fight an expected recession linked to the coronavirus pandemic. Armenia’s Central Bank said that despite deflationary pressures, its consumer price index still measured a 1.7% rise in prices over the past 12 months.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Armenian banks improve profits despite coronavirus

Leave a Reply

JULY 28 (The Bulletin) — Banks in Armenia increased their net profit in the first half of the year by 5.9%, media reported by quoting a banking lobby group. It said that despite the impact of the coronavirus pandemic, which analysts said would cause a recession in Armenia, all 17 banks in the country had been profitable so far in 2020.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Water shortage triggers concerns on Tajik power generation

Leave a Reply

DUSHANBE/JULY 28 (The Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s national energy company Barqi Tojik said that a shortage of water in its reservoirs had reduced its electricity generation capacity and forced it to cut its power exports.

Water shortages and electricity cuts are a concern for Tajikistan as power is one of its main exports. The headline Rogun dam, the biggest hydroelectric dam in the world, is due for completion by 2028 and has been earmarked to boost Tajikistan’s power exports but, without sufficient water, it could become a white elephant.

In a live TV address, a government official from the ministry of power said that water levels in the Vakhsh and Panj rivers were lower than at any time since records began.

“Today, the Nurek reservoir has 17m less water in it than last year,” he said. “If this situation continues, the reservoir will be severely depleted, and in winter there will be serious problems in providing electricity to the population and the national economy.”

The Nurek reservoir is situated about 40km from Dushanbe, slightly lower down the same river system as Rogun. This means that if there is a shortage of water for Nurek, there will be a shortage of water for Rogun.

The government blamed global warming for the water shortages.

“The process of climate change and global warming is going on rapidly on the planet, and its impact, especially this year on Tajikistan, has intensified,” the spokesman said.

The immediate concern, though, is that Tajikistan doesn’t have enough water in its reservoirs to power its electricity generating capacity. Tajikistan, Central Asia’s poorest country, has already cut electricity transmission levels to Uzbekistan and analysts are worried that it won’t be able to meet its obligations for the World Bank-backed CASA-1000 project.

By 2023, CASA-1000 should be operating a network of electricity transmission masts that will carry power generated in Tajik and Kyrgyz hydro systems, across Afghanistan into Pakistan. The West sees it as a win-win-win. Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Afghanistan earn much-needed cash, Pakistan buys up much-needed power and the West earn kudos.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Uzbekistan looks for company to run national lottery

Leave a Reply

JULY 28 (The Bulletin) — The Uzbek government is looking for a company to run its new national lottery, potentially opening up to a Western operator. The government plans a new national lottery when betting rules are relaxed next year. The current lottery, which has been the only legal form of gambling in Uzbekistan since 2007, will be scrapped.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Caspian seals are now under threat, says Kazakhstan

Leave a Reply

JULY 27 (The Bulletin) — Kazakh officials said that the population of the Caspian seal, unique to the Caspian Sea, has declined by 90% over the past 100 years. It said that the population of the seals was now at around 100,000 and that they would be placed on the government’s endangered list. It blamed over hunting during the Soviet Union and release of toxins from industry and the oil and gas sector as the main reasons for the decline.

ENDS

— This story was published in issue 455 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on July 31 2020.