Author Archives: Editor

The wisdom in punishing former presidents for corruption

JUNE 23 (The Bulletin) — Former presidents in Central Asia and the South Caucasus have more in common with London buses than you would expect.

An old adage says that you wait for ages for a London bus and then two come along at once. To some extent, the same could be said of former presidents in Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

In Bishkek, a judge marked a first by imprisoning former president Almazbek Atambayev for 11 years for corruption. He is the first former president in the region to be imprisoned but is likely to be followed quickly by two more. In Armenia, former presidents Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan are in and out of court and both appear destined for a spell in prison.

There have, of course, been other attempts to imprison former presidents in Central Asia, but they have failed. Just. Kurmanbek Bakiyev, a former president in Kyrgyzstan, was found guilty of corruption after a revolution in 2010 but had already fled to Belarus and Mikheil Saakashvili, Georgia’s former president, has also been found guilty of corruption but is living and working in Ukraine.

The point is that unless they are very careful, incoming governments tempted to set prosecutors onto the trail of former presidents and their various associates, look like they are more interested in settling scores than governing.

Rightly, US and EU diplomats have lobbied for various governments not to go down this route. It undermines their credibility and damages both relations with foreign investors, who don’t like the aggressive headlines, and also ordinary people’s trust in politics.

Perhaps it would have been better in Kyrgyzstan and Armenia and Georgia to spend less energy on settling old scores and more on improving people’s lives? The drivers can be different — in Kyrgyzstan, Pres. Sooronbai Jeenbekov had to stop Atambayev dominating politics; in Armenia, PM Pashinyan felt that he needed to perpetuate the popular revolution of 2018 and punish former governments for shooting dead anti-government protests in 2008; in Georgia, the incoming Georgian Dream coalition government needed to prove that Saakashvili and his government were as corrupt and evil as they had claimed in an acrimonious pair of elections — but the results are the same.

And it perpetuates as the next incoming government will be tempted to right the wrongs that they have also been nursing.

When this cycle is broken, politics in the region will have truly grown up.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Berdy approves expansion of two Turkmen cement factories

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JUNE 23 (The Bulletin) — Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov approved the expansion of two cement factories, suggesting that despite the impact of the spread of the coronavirus, Turkmenistan would continue to construct new buildings. The sites will be built by privately-owned companies but will be owned by the Turkmen state.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Atambayev sent to prison for 11 years

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BISHKEK/JUNE 23 (The Bulletin) — Almazbek Atambayev, Kyrgyzstan’s former president, was sentenced to 11 years in prison for corruption, completing a heavy fall from grace for a man who had at one time been venerated as a modern Kyrgyz leader.

Atambayev is also the first former president in the Central Asia and South Caucasus region to be imprisoned, although former Armenian presidents Robert Kocharyan and Serzh Sargsyan have both been arrested for corruption too.

The court said that Atambayev was guilty of corruption over the release of Chechen mafia boss, Aziz Batukayev from prison in 2013. Prosecutors said that the two men were allied. Batukayev was arrested and imprisoned in 2006 for 16 years for organising anti-government demonstrations. This was when Atambayev was in opposition. He was PM in 2010/11 and president from 2011-17.

Supporters of Atambayev accused the government of Sooronbai Jeenbekov of using the judiciary to pursue political vendettas. This has become a common refrain across the region after power transitions.

Atambayev has fallen out with Mr Jeenbekov, the man he picked to succeed him as president. It appeared that Atambayev, who was described as acerbic and aloof during his presidency, considered his successor to be his junior and he expected Mr Jeenbekov to defer to him. He wanted to run Kyrgyzstan, essentially, as a backseat driver. Mr Jeenbekov, though, had other ideas and prosecutors have steadily arrested and imprisoned Atambayev’s supporters.

Atambayev was arrested in August after a two-day stand-off with the security forces. He still faces trials for other offences, including inciting armed rebellion.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Tourism dries up in Azerbaijan

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JUNE 22 (The Bulletin) — Data from Azerbaijan’s statistics agency showed the impact of the coronavirus lockdown on the tourist industry. It said that in the first five months of the year, the number of tourists in Azerbaijan halved to 563,000. Most of Azerbaijan’s tourists arrive from Russia, Georgia and Turkey but a growing market is tourists from the Middle East. Tourist numbers are proportionally likely to fall further through the year.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Kazakh court imprisons activist for insulting ruling party

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JUNE 22 (The Bulletin) — A court in Almaty sentenced an opposition activist to “three years of limited freedom” for insulting the governing Nur Otan party. Alnur Ilyashev’s crime was to describe on various Facebook posts Nur Otan as a bunch of “crooks and thieves”. The judge declined to give him the prison sentence that government prosecutors had asked for but he will have to serve 300 hours of community service and is banned from political activity for five years.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Turkmenistan Airlines to lease first Boeing cargo jet

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JUNE 22 (The Bulletin) — Turkmenistan Airlines will lease its first Boeing 777F, a cargo plane. Media reported that the deal will cost Turkmenistan Airlines an estimated $352m to lease the aircraft from Frankfurt-based Aircraft Finance Germany. The high cost highlights the growing importance of the Europe-Asia cargo business that airlines in Central Asia are competing for.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Armenian MPs vote to allowing sacking of judges

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JUNE 22 (The Bulletin) — Armenia’s parliament voted to approve changes to the country’s constitution that will allow PM Nikol Pashinyan to fire judges he considers to be irritating, a move that his detractors have said is politically motivated. Armenia had been due to hold a referendum on the constitutional changes in April but a coronavirus lockdown forced its cancellation. Mr Pashinyan wants to fire three judges appointed to the Constitutional Court before a referendum in 2018 propelled him to power. >> See page 2 for comment

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Invest in our agriculture, Kazakh officials say

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JUNE 22 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan wants foreign investors to buy into its vision for its agricultural sector, the government said through the state-linked newspaper Astana Times. Kazakh officials have been trying to promote its agricultural sector for the past decade and to expand its exports away from grain.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Uzbekistan wants to sell stake in Coca Cola bottling plant

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TASHKENT/JUNE 22 (The Bulletin) — the Uzbek government said it wanted to sell its 57% stake in its joint-venture with Coca-Cola, the largest soft drinks producer in Central Asia.

The sale of the two production plants in Uzbekistan, for an undeclared amount, highlights the government’s commitment to its much-vaunted privatisation process, a process that has touched most sectors of an economy that was once considered off-limits to foreign investors.

Uzbekistan’s State Asset Management Agency gave no other details on the potential sale but it is one of the country’s most-prized manufacturing assets and will attract interest.

In March, Coca-Cola said that it planned to invest $31m into the joint venture to “modernise and expand the production capacities of factories in Tashkent and Khorezm province”.

It also said in its statement at the time that it had increased capacity by more than a third in 2018 and by another third in 2019, reflecting large growth in the soft drinks market in Central Asia and also in Uzbekistan which has experienced an economic boom under Shavkat Mirziyoyev, president since 2016.

“According to the findings of the study conducted in 2019, the market is expected to grow by 1.8 times in the next 10 years due to the growth in population, income and the tourist inflow into the region,” Coca Cola said in its March statement.

This was shortly before the Uzbek government locked the country down to try to stem the spread of the coronavirus. Economists have said that the lockdown strategy, adopted by most countries, will tip Uzbekistan into a recession this year.

The sale of its stake in the Coca-Cola joint-venture is just the latest asset that the Uzbek government has put up for sale. Earlier this year it said that it wanted to find a foreign partner to run its airline, Uzbekistan Airways. It was unclear if a deal with Uzbekistan Airways may also involve selling off a stake.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Turkish Airlines to restart flying to the region

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JUNE 22 (The Bulletin) — Turkish Airlines, a vital service into both Central Asia and the South Caucasus, said that it was going to restart most of its routes from July 1. Like the rest of the aviation sector Turkish Airlines had stopped its routes when the coronavirus was spreading across the globe and governments were imposing lockdowns.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, published on June 23 2020