Category Archives: Uncategorised

Karimov wins Uzbek presidential election

MARCH 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Without any irony, apparently, the authorities in Uzbekistan declared Islam Krimov the winner of a presidential election on Sunday with 90% of the vote.

This is the fourth consecutive presidential election that the 77-year-old Mr Karimov has won since the break up of the Soviet Union in 1991. It’s also the fourth consecutive election Western observers said was unfair. The other candidates, Western observers said, all supported Mr Karimov.

The reality is that the presidential election was a choreographed affair design to impose top-down stability over the country as it grapples with worsening economic conditions across the region.

It was also designed, at least in the short-term, to put an end to any chat of succession or replacing Mr Karimov. Last year his eldest daughter, Gulnara Karimova, who was once widely feared, lost her grip on power and is now under house arrest. Her closest associates are in prison, found guilty of various economic crimes.

The biggest question for Uzbekistan and Central Asia is how the Uzbek elite replace Mr Karimov. For years there has been speculation about his health and although he played a high-profile role in the election he disappeared from view just before campaigning began.

The next few years are vital for sorting out a smooth transition of power.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)

Kyrgyz Central Bank spends to defend som

MARCH 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s Central Bank bought $11.4m worth of som to slow its devaluation, media reported, its third intervention in March. Kyrgyzstan, like other countries in the region, has been trying to manage a fall in the value of its currency.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)

Armenia plans update to torture definition

MARCH 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia will update its definition of the term torture to meet international standards, the London-based media NGO Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) said. The update, the IWPR reported, was aimed at cracking down on police torture.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)

Russia pressured Armenia to join EEU, says parliament

APRIL 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia used its control of gas supplies to Armenia to pressure the government into joining its Eurasian Economic Union, a parliamentary inquiry has said.

The inquiry said Russia increased gas prices to Armenia until it agreed to join the Eurasian Economic Union in 2013.

The findings are strong evidence that Russia uses its economic leverage over Central Asia and the South Caucasus for political gain.

Also in the past week, Russia approved a $1 billion development fund for Kyrgyzstan. This, again, appears linked to Kyrgyzstan’s entry to the Eurasian Economic Union later this year.

The West has long said the Kremlin’s aim in the region is to coerce governments into doing its bidding.

In Armenia and Kyrgyzstan, it has found vulnerable partners. Both are relatively poor with few natural resources. They both host Russian military bases and are reliant on Russian business and remittances from workers living in Russia for growth.

Importantly too, Gazprom owns the gas pipeline network in both Armenia and Kyrgyzstan. This has often been the choke point. Controlling a country’s gas supply gives Russia huge power.

There is one other major similarity between Armenia and Kyrgyzstan regarding membership of the Eurasian Economic Union. Bulletin correspondents in both countries report that most ordinary people, and also many of the politicians, don’t really want to join the group. Instead, they feel compelled to.

Belarus and Kazakhstan, both far larger economies, are also members of the EEU.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)

Kazakhstan signs deals with China

MARCH 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to Beijing, Kazakh PM Karim Massimov signed deals with his Chinese counterpart, Li Keqiang, worth $23.6b. The deals covered a range of industries from steel and glass production to oil refining and hydropower. China and Kazakhstan have increased cooperation in the past few years.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)

Russia creates fund for Kyrgzstan

MARCH 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russia has approved a law that will create a Russia-Kyrgyzstan development fund worth $1b, media reported. Kyrgyzstan has agreed to join the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union later this year and it is likely that the fund’s creation was linked to Kyrgyz membership of the group.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)

Bribes halve in Tajikistan

MARCH 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Worsening economic conditions in Tajikistan have even knocked the value of bribes in the notoriously corrupt country, the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. It said that the value of bribes had halved over the past few months.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)

Kyrgyz’s Bakiyev owns UK mansion

MARCH 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Maxim Bakiyev, the son of former Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, is living in a £3.5m ($5m) mansion in southern England, the transparency lobby group Global Witness reported. The mansion is owned through various off-shore companies. Mr Bakiyev is wanted in Bishkek for various financial crimes.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)

Head of Kazakhstani nuclear agency dies on China trip

MARCH 25 2015, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Nurlan Kapparov, a key member of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s inner cortege and head of the Kazakh nuclear agency Kazatomprom, died of a suspected heart attack while on a business trip to Beijing. He was 44-years-old.

Slick and Western-educated, Kapparov was part of the post-Soviet wave of loyal bureaucrats who helped Nazarbayev retain his grip on power. Having headed state energy company KazakhOil, been Kazakhstan’s environment minister and, most recently, head of the state nuclear agency KazAtomProm, sources said that Kapparov had the potential to be a senior government minister.

While he never openly showed such lofty ambition, his presence in and around the government was keenly felt. He acted in the shadows, influencing Kazakhstan’s transition to a more nationalist energy policy. In 2000, as a young vice-minister of energy he was able to negotiate an increase in Kazakhstan’s share of the Tengiz oil field, to the detriment of the US’s Chevron.

Kapparov was also a powerful businessman. The Lancaster Group — which can be traced back to him — is the conduit through which several joint ventures with oil and mining multinationals accessed the Kazakh market. With strong ties to ENI and Saipem, Kapparov had been president of the Kazakhstan-Italy Business Council.

Kapparov had been in China together with Kazakh PM Karim Massimov to strike a handful of multi-billion dollars deals. Ahead of the main deal-making day, he was discovered on the floor of a lavatory in a Beijing restaurant. He had died of a suspected heart attack.

Hundreds gathered in Almaty to mourn his death at the Academy of Sciences although, importantly, veterans and state officials were bussed in to increase attendance. The divide between the government and ordinary people in Kazakhstan is such that enough the sudden death of senior officials is greeted with indifference.

Ambition and acumen brought Kapparov to power and his loss will be felt by the government.
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(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)

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Copyright — The Conway Bulletin

Azerbaijan signs shirt deal with Lazio FC

MARCH 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Lazio, a football team based in Rome, may sign a shirt sponsorship deal with Azerbaijan to carry its “Azerbaijan: Land of Fire” slogan, Azerbaijani websites reported quoting the national football association. Azerbaijan already sponsors Atletico Madrid.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 225, published on April 12015)