Category Archives: Uncategorised

Armenia to convict Russian soldier

AUG. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Russian military court sentenced soldier Valery Permyakov to 10 years in jail for desertion and then handed him over to Armenian officials who are building a case to try him for the stabbing to death of an entire family earlier this year. Permyakov had been serving at the Gyumri military base in Armenia, one of Russia’s largest overseas bases.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)

Tajikistan needs more clean water

AUG. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A senior UN official said that Tajikistan needed to prioritise bringing clean drinking water to more people. Leo Heller, Special Rapporteur on the human right to safe drinking water and sanitation, made the statement after a mission to the country.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 243, published on Aug. 14 2015)

Turkmengaz to lead TAPI

AUG. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan and India have picked Turkmengaz, the Turkmen national gas company, to lead the construction of the so-called TAPI pipeline which, they hope, will pump gas from Central Asia to the Indian subcontinent.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 242, published on Aug. 7 2015)

Georgia-Russia number of people flying increase

AUG. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Data from Georgia’s ministry of economy showed that the number of people flying between Tbilisi and Moscow had risen by three-quarters to around 143,000 people in the first seven of 2015 compared to the same period in 2014. Russia and Georgia have resumed direct air links, severed after a brief war in 2008.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 242, published on August 7 2015)

Armenia to subsidise power

AUG. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia’s government will use cash generated by the $180m sale of the Vorotan Hydro Cascade hydropower plant earlier this year to subsidise a 16% increase in power prices, media quoted PM Hovik Abrahamian as saying. The announcement appears to be a climbdown as the power price rise had sparked protests.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 242, published on August 7 2015)

Kazakh city loses Olympics

JULY 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Beijing beat Almaty in the race to host the 2022 Winter Olympics at a vote at a meeting of the International Olympic Committee in Kuala Lumpur. Almaty had been looking to become the only city in the former Soviet Union outside Russia to host an Olympic Games. President Nursultan Nazarbayev wants to burnish his image as the father-of-the-nation by hosting a major sporting event.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 242, published on Aug. 7 2015)

Kazakh Central Bank buys 10% stake in Kashagan oil project

JUNE 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh Central Bank bought a 10% stake in Kazmunaigas from the country’s sovereign wealth fund Samruk Kazyna for 750b tenge ($4b), a move analysts said was designed to help the state- owned energy company pay off debts generated by a sharp fall in oil prices.

This is the second reorganisation of Kazmunaigas since June. It earlier announced the sale of half its 16.8% stake in the Kashagan oil project to Samruk-Kazyna for $4.7b.

Analysts at Halyk Bank, a Kazakh bank, said the latest move shifted debt once again from Kazmunaigas to Samruk Kazyna to the Central Bank.

“If the first transaction raised the net debt of Samruk-Kazyna, the second lowered Samruk- Kazyna’s net debt, and the credit risk. By divesting of Kazmunaigas, Samruk-Kazyna reduced the most expensive part of its debt,” Halyk Finance senior analysts Sabit Khakimzhanov and Gulmariya Zhapakova said in a note to clients.

Delays at Kashagan and a sharp fall in oil prices have worsened Kazmunaigas’ financial affairs.

But, although unprecedented, the Central Bank’s purchase will change little in Kazakhstan’s oil sector. The two transactions may have helped Kazmunaigas achieve a better financial position in the short term, but both moves are temporary.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 242, published on Aug. 7 2015)

Kyrgyzstan cuts interest rates

JULY 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s Central Bank cut its main interest rate to 8% from 9.5% because of a slowdown in inflation. The Central Bank said annualised inflation was now hovering around 6%, nearly half the level seen at the beginning of the year. Kyrgyzstan, like the rest of the region, has been coping with the fall out of a decline in the Russian economy.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 242, published on August 7 2015)

Kyrgyzstan joins EEU

AUG. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a decree on allowing Kyrgyzstan into the Russia- led Eurasian Economic Union. This was the final piece of paperwork that Kyrgyzstan needed to enter the trade bloc. Other members of the Eurasian Economic Union include Belarus and Armenia, which also joined this year.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 242, published on Aug. 7 2015)

Explosion hits pipeline from Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea

AUG. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – An explosion in Turkey on the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars-Ezurum gas pipeline has raised worries that Kurdish fighters and other factions may target energy transport infrastructure carrying oil and gas from the Azerbaijan’s Caspian Sea to Europe. Media reported an explosion on a remote section of the pipeline in east Turkey.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 242, published on August 7 2015)