AUG. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s government accused Russia of flying a military helicopter into its air space around the border of the breakaway region of South Ossetia. Earlier this year South Ossetian forces apparently grabbed a slither of Georgian territory. Russia is also staging large scale military exercises in South Ossetia.
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(News report from Issue No. 244, published on Aug. 21 2015)
AUG. 17/19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Officials in Tajikistan appeared to ramp up their crackdown on opposition members by filing extradition requests to Russia and Moldova for people linked to the banned Group 24. Earlier this year the exiled head of Group 24, Umarali Kuvvatov, was shot dead in Istanbul.
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(News report from Issue No. 244, published on Aug. 21 2015)
AUG. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia will build a new radar system in Azerbaijan, its ministry of defence said in a TV broadcast, underlining just how links between the two countries have developed. It will replace a radar station at Qabala that Russia had leased from Azerbaijan. In 2012 Azerbaijan declined to sign a lease extension on the radar at Qabala to Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 244, published on Aug. 21 2015)
AUG. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan formally joined the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union when it dropped customs barriers with its neighbour Kazakhstan, which is also a member. Both Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev and Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev attended a ceremony to mark the occasion. Belarus and Armenia are also members of the group which some critics have said is an underhand way for Russia to increase its political influence.
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(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)
AUG. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Azerbaijan sentenced human rights defenders Leyla and Arif Yunus to 8-1/2 and 7 years in prison for financial crimes, in what their supporters said was a sham trial.
Tanya Lokshina, a Human Rights Watch researcher based in Moscow, attended the sentencing.
“No matter what technical and legalistic pretexts the authorities are now using to lock up and destroy the Yunuses, one glance into that courtroom leaves you with no shadow of a doubt — this is a political trial and the supposed perpetrators are in fact victims of a vicious repression campaign against independent critics,” she wrote in a story on the Guardian website.
The Yunuses are just the latest human rights defenders, opposition activists or troublesome journalist to be sent to jail in Azerbaijan. The authorities have responded by saying that the West is mounting a concerted effort to blacken its name with negative PR.
But, perhaps, a precedent has been set. Attitudes towards free speech in Azerbaijan appear very dim as the death of another journalist on Aug. 8 appears to show.
Razim Aliyev died after he was beaten up apparently for criticising on Facebook international Azerbaijani footballer Javid Huseynov for making a politically sensitive gesture at a match between his club Gabala and a Cypriot team. Police have detained six men, including Mr Huseynov.
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(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)
AUG. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At least 15 people died in Uzbekistan when a bridge they were watching a concert from collapsed, media reported. The accident happened in a park in the town of Urgench, west Uzbekistan. It highlights the poor quality of many public buildings.
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(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)
AUG. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev appointed Akhmetzhan Yessimov, formerly the mayor of Almaty, to head his set piece EXPO-2017 in Astana. Mr Yessimov is a trusted ally of Mr Nazarbayev and is tasked with bringing EXPO-2017 back on track after a major corruption scandal. Baurzhan Baibek, an official at Mr Nazarbayev’s Nur Otan, will be the new Almaty mayor.
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(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)
AUG. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Turkmenistan have stopped a prominent horse breeder who has fallen out of favour with senior officials from leaving the country, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said. HRW said that Geldy Kyarizov and his family were barred from boarding a flight to Moscow where he was hoping to receive medical treatment.
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(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)
AUG. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia will host two naval exercises this year with the Azerbaijani and Kazakh navies, media reported quoting senior Russian officials. The drills will take place in the Caspian Sea. The first will be a bilateral exercise involving Azerbaijan and Russia. The second will be trilateral and also include Kazakhstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)
AUG. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Barcelona beat fellow Spanish side Sevilla 5-4 in the final of the UEFA Super Cup in Tbilisi, arguably the most high profile game of football played in post-Soviet Georgia. Former president Mikheil Saakashvili had organised for the match to be played in Tbilisi, part of his drive to promote the country.
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(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)