NOV. 22 (The Bulletin) — Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev sacked the mayor of Taraz, a town of 350,000 people in the south of the country, after a 12-year-old girl was raped in the latrine of her school. The rape sparked outrage in Taraz at the lack of care and oversight at the school. Reuters reported that 30% of schools in Kazakhstan still use outdoor latrines.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 22 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijan handed 10 more prisoners back to Iran, part of a swap system that has helped build trust between the two neighbours over the past decade. An official at the Iranian embassy in Baku said that this was the 26th prisoner swap. Relations have improved markedly from six or seven years ago when tension was so heightened that there was talk of war.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 22 (The Bulletin) — The Almaty-based Eurasian Development Bank (EDB), which is focused on the region covered by the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), wants to increase its operations in Armenia, one of its directors, Dmitry Ladikov-Roev, said on a visit to Yerevan. The EEU is seen as a Kremlin political project.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 22 (The Bulletin) — Georgia’s former interior minister Irakli Okruashvili was handed another pre-trial detention sentence ahead of his trial in January for abuse of office in a case linked to the murder of Amiran Robakidze in 2004. Mr Okruashvili has been in pre-trial detention since July when he was arrested for organising anti-government protests and rioting.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 19 (The Bulletin) — Construction has started on a fibre-optical line running across the Caspian Sea between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan’s government-linked Astana Times reported. The project will, officials said, improve communication between Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 5 (The Bulletin) — The retail franchise Spar will set up shops in Armenia from 2020, the business lobby group Invest in Armeni said. It did not say who would operate the franchise. Armenia’s economy has been growing, making it an increasingly attractive prospect for international franchise. There are 12,500 shops operating under the Spar brand in 44 countries. In the region, Spar already operates in Georgia and Azerbaijan.
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— This story was first published in issue 428 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 4 (The Bulletin) — US NGO Freedom House said that free speech in Kazakhstan, alongside Sudan and Brazil, had deteriorated rapidly over the past 12 months. It said that the drop in free speech coincided with the handover of power from Nursultan Nazarbayev to Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and that the government had tried to “monopolise the mobile market and implement real-time electronic surveillance”.
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— This story was first published in issue 428 of the weekly Bulletin
NOV. 11 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan is losing $11m every month because of Russia’s ban on coal being sent to Ukraine across its territory, the Kazakh ministry of trade said. The Kazakh ministry said that it had approved a plan in July to send 103,500 tonnes of coal to Ukraine but that this had been downgraded by the Russian authorities to 60,200 tonnes. It said that subsequent coal supplies had also been reduced by the Russian authorities.
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— This story was first published in issue 428 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 3 (The Bulletin) — Iran wants Kyrgyz and Uzbek companies to transport goods across its territory to the Persian Gulf, Iranian First Vice President Es’haq Jahangiri told reporters after meeting with Uzbek PM Abdulla Aripov on the sidelines at a meeting for heads of governments of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) in Tashkent. Increasingly isolated, Iran has been trying to woo Central Asian countries by offering them access to global markets via the Persian Gulf.
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— This story was first published in issue 428 of the weekly Bulletin.
NOV. 11 (The Bulletin) –The EU’s External Action Service which monitors the border near the Georgian breakaway region of South Ossetia said that tension was rising and criticised the South Ossetian authorities for making inflammatory statements. It said that both sides should show “maximum restraint”. Tension between South Ossetia, which i backed by Russia, and Georgia triggered a war in 2008.
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— This story was first published in issue 428 of the weekly Bulletin