APRIL 16 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Russia arrested a second Kyrgyz man, Abror Azimov, as being the mastermind behind the bomb attack in St Petersburg on April 3 that killed at least 14 people. The arrest piles more pressure on the authorities in Kyrgyzstan to crack down on cells of radical Islamists that analysts have said are spearheading extremist attacks.
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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)
APRIL 20 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan has tried to bribe members of the Council of Europe’s Parliamentary Assembly (Pace) into helping it improve its human rights record, the Guardian newspaper reported citing various officials it had interviewed. Similar claims have been made before against individual members of the Council of Europe which has influence over the human rights lobby.
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(News report from Issue No. 325, published on April 17 2017)
TASHKENT, APRIL 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Money changers still hawk for custom outside nearly all markets and shopping malls in Uzbekistan despite reports of a crackdown on the trade that has become a part of the Uzbek scene over the past 25 years.
A correspondent for the Conway Bulletin said that he had received around double the official Uzbek som/US dollar exchange rate on the Black Market. The Uzbek government has been devaluing the Uzbek som by around 1.4% per week since September last year. It now measures around 3,650 som.
Last month reports appeared that Uzbek police had been arresting money changers at some of Tashkent’s biggest markets. The Conway Bulletin correspondent, though, reported that money changers appeared to be operating with impunity, touting for business across the capital.
At rural markets, the correspondent said money changers carried wads of cash in bags and openly haggled with people looking to change som into US dollars.
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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)
DUSHANBE, APRIL 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — After three aborted attempts blamed on a variety of different issues, Uzbekistan Airways made its first flight between Tashkent and Dushanbe for 25 years.
A spokesman at Dushanbe Airport said that the Uzbekistan Airways flight had landed at 8.03am local time. Earlier in the year a flight by the privately-owned Somon Air landed at Tashkent airport from Dushanbe.
The resumption of flights between the two capitals was considered a vital sign of improved relations between the neighbours. Uzbekistan Airways has said that it now intends to fly between Tashkent and Dushanbe twice a week.
Under Uzbek president Islam Karimov, Uzbekistan perused an isolationist policy, especially with regards to Tajikistan which he viewed virtually as a pariah state.
Karimov was particularly incensed by plans drawn up by his Tajik counterpart, Emomali Rakhmon, to build a dam across rivers that feed Uzbekistan’s cotton fields. His successor, Shavkat Mirziyoyev has been more avuncular and has patched up damaged relations.
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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)
TBILISI, APRIL 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Nineteen penguins made themselves at home in Tbilisi’s refurbished zoo after being flown in from Bristol, southwest England.
The South African Penguins have been donated by Bristol Zoo to re- start a penguin population at Tbilisi Zoo, two years after a flood destroyed it. Other zoos around Europe have been donating animals to Tbilisi.
Christoph Schwitzer, Bristol Zoo’s director of conservation, said: “Animals regularly move to new zoos when they are old enough to join new breeding groups, and we are very happy to be able to support Tbilisi Zoo by donating a group of penguins to establish a new breeding group in Georgia as part of the European breeding programme.”
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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)
APRIL 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan-based Capital bank promoted Bakhtiyar Ilyasov to be chairman, replacing Ghani Uzbekov. He had previously been the bank’s deputy chairman. In a note, the bank said that Mr Ilyasov would oversee the merger with Tengri bank, announced in March.
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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)
APRIL 6 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s banking sector needs urgent reform if it is going to pull out of the current crisis, the Asian Development Bank said. Among other things, Tajik banks should increase their capital levels and improve their ownership transparency. Tajikistan’s banks have been teetering on the verge of bankruptcy. Only investments from the government and international institutional banks have averted a collapse of the banking sector.
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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)
APRIL 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijani defence minister Yaver Jamalov estimated that the value of the country’s defence industry was around $101m this year and that it will sell arms and military equipment to 10 countries. Azerbaijan has invested heavily into building up its arms industry. It has boasted that arms it manufactures were used effectively in April 2016 when tension around the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh spilled over into battles with Armenia- backed rebels for a couple of days.
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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)
APRIL 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Speaking to parliament, Georgian defence minister Levan Izoria said that the Georgian military intended to sell its 12 Su-25 Soviet-era jets and use the cash raised to buy helicopters and drones. The Georgian military said earlier in the year that it was going to ditch using fighter jets altogether.
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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)
APRIL 7 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Astana found union leader Nurbek Kushakbayev, guilty of organising an illegal strike in January and sentenced him to 2-1⁄2 years in prison. His supporters say the sentence is harsh and that the court was being politicised. Kushakbayev had been deputy chairman of the Confederation of Independent Trade Unions which was closed on the orders of a court in Shymkent. The government has been trying to curtail the power of the trade unions.
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(News report from Issue No. 324, published on April 13 2017)