JUNE 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia launched military exercises involving 1,500 soldiers in South Ossetia, angering Georgia. In 2008, Russia and Georgia fought a war over the region. Russia defeated Georgia and S.Ossetia declared independence although this was only recognised by the Kremlin and a handful of other states.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Thomas Bach, president of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), travelled to Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan as part of a short trip to the region. Mr Bach first travelled to Baku for the opening ceremony of the European Games and then to Tashkent, Dushanbe and Bishkek.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia-France missile deal Georgia signed a deal with France to buy an air defence missile system, framed as a much needed modernisation. The deal has been in the making for several months. Finalising the details had been delayed because of a change of Georgian defence minister last year.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov was one of a handful of international leaders to head to Azerbaijan for the opening ceremony of the European Games. In Baku, he held talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev. Turkmenistan wants to send gas to Europe via Azerbaijan.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh carmakers doubled domestic production in May compared to April, according to the Association of the Kazakh Automobile Business, but overall sales are still lower this year.
Car production and demand are a decent weathermast for checking the health of economies. Kazakhstan, like the rest of the region, has been struggling to cope with the fallout from a decline in economic conditions, linked mainly to a fall in global oil prices.
This drop in car sales and production numbers.
Overall, car sales have slumped by around a third in Kazakhstan in the first quarter of the year compared to 2014 but there was a definite uptick in domestic production last month. Domestic manufacturers produced 2,611 new cars in May up from t 1,248 cars in April.
The car market is still suffering from slow sales in the first quarter of 2015, down 32% from the last quarter of 2014.
Car manufacturing has become increasingly important to Kazakhstan’s economy, employing hundreds of people. Most of the industry is based around Kostanai in the north of the country and Oskemen, or Ust-Kamenogorsk as it was called until recently, in the east.
In Kazakhstan, car sales hit 160,000 in 2013, up nearly 70% from 2012. There was a slight drop in 2014 and 2015 is shaping up to be an even bigger drop. This will likely be the first time that car sales have declined for two years in a row in Kazakhstan since 2008 and 2009, during the global economic crisis.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – US-based Contour Global Hydro Cascade formally received a 25-year licence to produce electricity at the Vorotan hydropower plants from Armenia’s state regulator. Although a formality, the licence is significant as Vorotan produces around 15% of Armenia’s electricity.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – UN Secretary-General Ban Ki- Moon wrapped up a trip to Central Asia with a speech to university students in Ashgabat in which he warned that democracy and human rights in the region were being increasingly marginalised.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan’s security forces opened a money laundering investigation into UzGazOil, a private company that runs a network of petrol stations, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. UzGazOil was owned by Zeromax which was linked to Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Pres. Islam Karimov.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan and Iran intend to set up a joint bank in Tehran, Iran’s ambassador to Azerbaijan, Mohsen Pak Ayeen, told the Trend news agency.
Mr Ayeen was speaking to reporters at the sidelines of a conference in Tehran. He didn’t give any more details on how the bank would be developed.
If the bank did take off, it would underline just how far relations between Azerbaijan and Iran have improved over the past few years. Under former president Mahmoud Ahmedinejad, Azerbaijan and Iran were locked in a cycle of sabre rattling, arresting spies and threatening war.
Since then, though, with Hassan Rouhani in power in Tehran since 2013 and the international community gradually accepting the re-emergence of Iran, the two neighbours have made a show of swapping prisoners, hosting bilateral defence and diplomatic meetings and talking up trade relations.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)
JUNE 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Alexander Rondeli, one of the most high-profile and influential Georgian political commentators, died aged 73. Rondeli was known for his charm and hospitality and was widely quoted by foreign journalists and diplomats.
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(News report from Issue No. 236, published on June 18 2015)