Category Archives: Uncategorised

Kalashnikov opens store in Georgian capital

TBILISI, JULY 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russian arms manufacturer Kalashnikov has opened its first shop outside Russia in a Tbilisi shopping mall, selling guns and accessories from both the Kalashnikov range and the Baikal hunting range.

Kalashnikov, which is 51% owned by Rostec, a Russian defence sector state holding, had not sold civilian firearms to Georgia in a decade, the company said.

“In the next five years, we are looking to boost deliveries of civil arms to Georgia,” Kalashnikov’s marketing director, Vladimir Dmitriyev said in a press release.

Relations between Russia and Georgia have slowly improved since former President Mikheil Saakashvili lost power in 2013 and the new government moved towards reconciliation after a war in 2008 exacerbated tensions in the breakaway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

The new store said it will sell hunting and sports arms. The company is looking to brush off the old Soviet-era heritage and build a more modern, branded look. Last year, it opened 20 new shops across Russia and plans to enter Kazakhstan in 2017. Kalashnikov is one of Russia’s most recognisable brands.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Turkmenistan imposes restrictions on Western Union

JULY 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Turkmen government has allegedly imposed restrictions on money transfers via the Western Union service at local banks, RFE/RL reported. Under new rules, recipients in Turkmenistan need to provide official documentation to prove their relationship to the sender. Neither the Turkmen government nor Western Union have confirmed the restriction.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

ADB agrees $750m loan to update Azeri power

JULY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Asian Development Bank (ADB) said it will lend $750m to Azerbaijan to co-fund improvements to the country’s outdated regional power distribution systems.

The project, worth around $1b, aims to refurbish the distribution network and the efficiency of Azerishiq (Azerlight), the state-owned power distribution company.

Azerbaijan’s government will invest the remaining $250m. The ADB said that it will send its $750m loan in three tranches of $250m.

“This ADB program will help address the bottleneck in electricity supply and provide round-the-clock and reliable electricity to households and entities in secondary cities and rural areas in Azerbaijan,” Sean O’Sullivan, director general in ADB’s Central Asia Department, said.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Kyrgyz President arranges anti-extremist posters

JULY 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev said that he arranged the financing of several posters across Bishkek designed to warn against the spread of more extreme foreign forms of Islam in Kyrgyzstan. Mr Atambayev was questioned on the posters during a joint press conference with German Chancellor Angela Merkel. He said that even minor changes in a country’s tradition, such as clothing or words, can foster radicalisation.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Kyrgyz President talks about Islamic extremism recruitment techniques

JULY 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Basking in the reflected glory of German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s first ever trip to Central Asia, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev seems to have seized his moment to boast of his country’s commitment — and his own personal efforts — in combating Islamic extremism.

During a 30-minute joint press conference with Ms Merkel, Mr Atambayev said he had ordered his office to pay for posters campaigning against Islamic extremism across Bishkek.

With the rise of the extremist group IS, Central Asian leaders have emphasised the role of external pressure on the radicalisation of their citizens and how their security forces respond to it.

These strategies have served the governments’ objectives of cracking down on opposition forces, shifting blame and establishing a constant ‘emergency mode’.

Some governments, like Turkmenistan, and to a lesser extent Uzbekistan, outright deny any radical Islamic presence within their borders. Even those countries that do, tend to blame foreign zealots for wiping up extremist sentiment.

Now, it seems, Mr Atambayev has changed the tone.

His decision to allocate public funds to posters that showed a correlation between the contamination of Kyrgyz traditional folklore and Islamic extremism is a bold one. The posters, plastered across motorways around the capital, showed a group of smiling girls in traditional white Kyrgyz dresses transitioning to a picture of a subjugated group of women wearing black hijabs that are alien to Central Asian cultures.

At the press conference, Mr Atambayev said that he supported the posters and wished there would be more across the city.

“[This] is where it all starts. We start with the adoption of foreign clothing, foreign words, and we end up with people who cut heads off,” Mr Atambayev said.

This is one of the first admissions from a Central Asian leader that radicalisation could be homegrown, albeit fuelled by adopting foreign custom.

It is still unclear whether Mr Atambayev was consciously trying to blaze a new trail in the fight against radical Islam or he was just trying to promote Kyrgyz people as traditionally peaceful.

Regardless, standing next to Ms Merkel he broke new ground in the radical Islam conversation in Central Asia.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Merkel makes trip to Bishkek, praises Kyrgyz democracy

BISHKEK, JULY 13/14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Angela Merkel became the first German leader to visit Kyrgyzstan when she landed in Bishkek on her way to a conference in Mongolia, handing Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev a major PR coup and making him the envy of his neighbours.

Standing next to Mr Atambayev inside the Presidential Residence, Ms Merkel, who had never before visited Central Asia in her 11 years as Germany’s Chancellor, praised Kyrgyzstan’s democratic progress.

“I am very pleased that we’ve now met in Kyrgyzstan, you have twice visited Germany,” she said.

“We have great respect for the path chosen by Kyrgyzstan since 2010. Kyrgyzstan has chosen the path of parliamentary democracy, and needs, of course, to be supported.”

Kyrgyzstan shifted power to parliament from the president in 2010 after a revolution and has since held three national elections — two parliamentary and one presidential — that Western election observers praised as reasonably free and fair. No other country in Central Asia has ever held an election praised by Western observers and commentators suggested Ms Merkel’s stop-over in Kyrgyzstan was a reward of sorts.

But as well as praising Kyrgyzstan for its relative democracy, Ms Merkel also warned Kyrgyz officials to respect the rule of law and human rights.

The day before her arrival, Kyrgyzstan’s Supreme Court ordered a retrial of Azimzhan Askarov, a prominent human rights activist jailed in 2010.

Mr Atambayev said that the two leaders had discussed a variety of subjects, including international terrorism and improving relations between Kyrgyzstan and the EU.

Posters welcoming Ms Merkel adorned Bishkek and most residents were excited about her visit.

Tamara, 59, a Bishkek resident said: “It is such an honour for Kyrgyzstan to host Angela Merkel because she is a great woman-politician, who promoted the idea of hosting Muslim refugees in Europe.”

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Turkmen President sacks officials

JULY 8 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — During a working visit to the north-eastern Lebap province, Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov sacked 11 local government officials and reprimanded over a dozen others for failing to keep up with the government’s industrialisation and development plans. Mr Berdymukhamedov has already sacked dozens of public officials this year, in a major restructuring of the country’s regional powerhouses.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Georgian IS commander gets killed

JULY 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Abu Omar Al-Shishani, a Georgian- born IS commander, was reported dead, according to IS-linked news outlets. Known as ‘Omar the Chechen’, Al-Shishani reportedly died in combat in Mosul, in northern Iraq. A native of Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge, Al-Shishani had served as the extremist group’s de facto minister of war.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

HM to open store in Kazakhstan

JULY 13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swedish fashion retailer H&M said it will open its first store in Kazakhstan in 2017, expanding its market into Central Asia. H&M follows other chains, such as French retailer Carrefour and food chain McDonald’s, which entered the Kazakh market in the past few months. Kazakh media said that the location for H&M’s new store is likely to be Almaty, Kazakhstan’s largest city.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)

Boardroom battle for control of Kazakhstan’s KMG EP heats up

ALMATY, JULY 14 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Intensifying its fight for more control over its London-traded subsidiary KMG EP, Kazakhstan’s state-owned energy company Kazmunaigas increased by 14% its earlier buyout offer to minority shareholders and retracted demands to cut the company’s independence.

Under pressure to boost income from oil and gas sales, Kazmunaigas wants to increase its 58% stake in KMG EP. KMG EP’s assets are more profitable than the assets owned by Kazmunaigas.

The problem for Kazmunaigas, though, is that its initial buyout offer of $7.88/GDR met with strong resistance from independent shareholders at KMG EP last month. The increase to $9/GDR, which Kazmunaigas issued without an explicit explanation, also appeared to attract a withering response.

“An increase in the price of the Purchase Offer would not be consistent with the prior statements made by Kazmunaigas that it ‘is not seeking to acquire any significant additional holdings in KMG EP through this offer’,” the independent directors said in a note.

They accused Kazmunaigas of underhand tactics to try to force more control over KMG EP. Specifically, the minority shareholders rallied against a new corporate governance structure proposed by Kazmunaigas that would reduce independent control of KMG EP. Kazmunaigas wanted to impose a veto against the appointment of independent directors but has now dropped these demands.

The ongoing saga within the most powerful industrial structure in Kazakhstan acts as a rare window on Kazakhstan’s corporate governance culture after a series of high profile scandals ahead of planned new IPOs, including Kazakhtelecom, the state- owned telecoms company.

KMG EP’s GDRs have traded at between $6 to $9 in the past 12 months.

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(News report from Issue No. 289, published on July 15 2016)