JULY 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s military started a two-week military exercise with NATO countries, including the US, at an airbase near Tbilisi. Much to the annoyance of Russia, Georgia is intent on joining NATO.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan pumped 675, 000 tonnes of oil to Russia in the first half of 2015, up from 508,000 tonnes in 2014, media reported quoting state energy company SOCAR. Azerbaijan had planned to halt oil shipments through the Baku- Novorossiisk pipeline to Russia but instead, seemingly as relations with Russia have improved, increased exports.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – To counter an increase in the number of Uzbek migrant workers returning home from Russia without work, Uzbekistan’s government has asked South Korea to increase the quota of workers it takes, RFE/RL reported. South Korea takes up to 22,500 migrant workers from Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev celebrated his 75th birthday in a more subdued fashion than previous occasions, perhaps reflecting Kazakhstan’s recent economic struggles. Mr Nazarbayev has been Kazakh president since independence in 1991 but has not named a successor.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s new, low-cost domestic airline Qazaq Air will begin commercial flights on July 20, it said at its official launch in Astana.
Qazaq Air is a fully-owned subsidiary of Samruk-Kazyna, Kazakhstan’s sovereign wealth fund, which will concentrate on flying less well served routes between regional cities across Kazakhstan.
At the launch party, the company director Blair Pollock said: “Many of the 12 routes on which the Q400 aircraft will operate are not currently served by any other carrier.”
The Kazakh government has made improving travel links between cities in this vast country a priority and the airline should improve business ties and trade between regional centres.
Qazaq Air said it had leased three Canadian Bombardier Dash 8 Q400 which can carry between 68 and 85 passengers, depending on the seating configuration
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – BISHKEK — Kyrgyz president Almazbek Atambayev awarded Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev the Order of Manas (First Class), Kyrgyzstan’s highest honour, for helping to create the Eurasian Economic Union.
He flew to Astana to give Mr Nazarbayev the award on his 75th birthday, five days after the Kazakh leader ratified Kyrgyzstan’s accession into the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union.
“We feel a strong fraternal support from the Republic of Kazakhstan,” Mr Atambayev said, according to media.
Toktogul Kakcheckeyev, an executive director at the Association of Political Scientists of Kyrgyzstan think tank in Bishkek, explained.
“The Manas award was given by Almazbek Atambayev to Nursultan Nazarbayev because of Nazarbayev’s efforts to develop regional cooperation in terms of Eurasian economic community,” he said. “Originally it was Nazarbayev’s idea to launch regional economic cooperation.”
In 1994, shortly after the fall of the Soviet Union in a speech in Moscow, Mr Nazarbayev spoke rather nostalgically of creating a Eurasian Union. This has now materialised, or, at least a version of that vision.
Still, some observers have said that Mr Atambayev’s award to Mr Nazarbayev was a brazen attempt to curry favour with the most powerful leader in Central Asia.
And Kyrgyzstan has form with this. The Kyrgyz parliament can be relied upon, almost every year, to nominate Mr Nazarbayev for a Nobel Peace Prize for giving up the nuclear weapons that Kazakhstan inherited after the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union.
Mr Nazarbayev is only the twelfth recipient of a First Class Order of Manas in its 19 year history.
Other recipients include Kofi Annan, the former UN Secretary- General.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Sixteen US senators have written to Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev calling on him to improve human rights in the country, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Mr Aliyev has previously accused the West of mounting a smear campaign against Azerbaijan.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev said he would welcome Italian infrastructure company Snam taking a stake in the planned Trans-Adriatic Pipeline (TAP) which will pump gas from Azerbaijan to Europe.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
JULY 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Khatlon province, south Tajikistan, sentenced Khusein Odinamakhmadov, 30, to 35 years in prison for recruiting Tajik men in Moscow to travel to Syria to join the extremist IS group, media reported. Tajikistan is worried about IS recruitment.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)
BISHKEK/KYRGYZSTAN, JULY 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Timur, a car mechanic in Bishkek, was more sanguine than most about impending petrol price rises.
“I do not think the fuel price increase will bother me,” the 23-year-old said. “There are always ups and downs in fuel price.”
Analysts in Kyrgyzstan anticipate a fuel price rise of between 7-15% this year because of the introduction of an excise tax that the government has introduced to plug a hole it is finances.
It’s a price rise that is all but certain to irritate ordinary Kyrgyz who have seen the value of their som savings plummet over the past few months and inflation slowly accelerate.
Russian importers dominate Kyrgyzstan’s petrol imports and, effectively set prices. The Kyrgyz government, though, has said that it wants to bring in a tax on fuel that will make up a shortfall generated by a drop in income during the recent downturn in economic fortunes. Like the rest of Central Asia, Kyrgyzstan’s economy is closely tied to Russia. The Russian economy has floundered because of a fall in oil prices and Western-imposed sanctions.
In March, the Kyrgyz government said that it was going to slap the tax on fuel and alcohol. Initially, analysts said the new tax was needed to bring the country in line with its future partners in the Eurasian Economic Union. Kyrgyzstan is set to join the economic group, which also includes Kazakhstan, Belarus and Armenia, this year.
And on the streets of Bishkek, other than Timur, the mechanic, people were increasingly frustrated. Taxi drivers said that whatever happened they would pay more for petrol but the same fee to rent the car.
“Of course, it is bad because we, as taxi drivers, pay for fuel on our own. Whether the fuel price is moderate or high, we pay the same percentage to the taxi service owners [to hire the taxis],” said a young man driving his car.
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(News report from Issue No. 239, published on July 9 2015)