Category Archives: Uncategorised

Remittance flows to Tajikistan drop

FEB. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Remittance flows from Russia to Tajikistan dropped by 8.3% in 2014 compared to 2013, the Tajik Central Bank said. Remittances are vital to the Tajik economy but have dried up slightly since sanctions and a drop in energy prices hit the Russian economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

Azerbaijan paying for teams to go to the Games

FEB. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan is paying Britain to send a team of 160 athletes to compete at the inaugural European Games in Baku this year, the Guardian newspaper reported. In an interview, the British team manager, Mark England, said Azerbaijan was giving “participation grants”. Azerbaijan’s Olympic Committee said it was paying travel and other costs for all 50 teams to compete.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

Measles surge in Kyrgyzstan

MARCH 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) -Citing Kyrgyzstan as one of the countries worst affected by a surge in measles, the World Health Organisation (WHO) called for a mass vaccination to prevent the disease spreading. WHO said Kyrgyzstan had 7,477 new measles cases since the start of 2014, out of 22,000 recorded in the Europe region.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

TV host murdered in Uzbekistan

MARCH 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Popular Uzbek TV host, Rakhmatilla Mirzayev, has been stabbed to death, Uzbek media reported. Media did not give a motive for the murder of Mirzayev who was 60-years-old and had worked for Uzbek TV for 40 years. His death, though, will once again place Uzbekistan’s rule-of-law under scrutiny.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

Sedatives found in Aliyev’s body

FEB. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) -An autopsy found sedatives in the bloodstream of Rakhat Aliyev, former son-in-law of Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev, who was found hanged in his Vienna prison cell last month, Reuters reported quoting an Austrian prosecutor. Austrian officials said Aliyev killed himself. Austria has asked Switzerland for a second autopsy.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

Kyrgyz parliament vote on gay laws

FEB. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz lawmakers are likely to vote on a bill that will criminalise promoting gay relationships in the next few weeks, the AFP news agency reported. The law is similar to Russian legislation that has attracted worldwide condemnation and, if passed, would possibly isolate Kyrgyzstan further from the West.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

Germany-Uzbekistan trade deal

MARCH 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a trip to Berlin, Uzbek officials agreed business deals worth $2.8b, Uzbekistan’s trade ministry said. The statement said most of the deals were related to various infrastructure projects. Relations between Germany and Uzbekistan are relatively close. Germany maintains a military base in south Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

Tashkent limits internet cafe access

FEB. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The authorities in Tashkent have started to enforce restrictions which limit access to the internet cafes that line the streets of the capital.
Under the new rules, internet cafes have to close by 9pm and minors are banned from them during school hours.

Internet cafes are important in Uzbekistan where the media is predominantly state-controlled and home internet access is severely limited.

The authorities say they want to protect Uzbekistan’s youth from the seedier side of the internet as well as from recruitment videos from the radical group IS. Human rights groups say the real reason is to block free media.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

Kazakh chases the American dream

NEW YORK, March 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – — Kanat Beisekeyev is a young photographer from Almaty. At 22, he has already been in search of the American Dream for a couple of years, joining the New York Film Academy and the International Photography Center (IPC).

It’s exciting, but tough.

“New York changed my life, it’s tough here, man!” said Beisekeyev with a twinkle.
As well as chasing the American Dream, Beisekeyev is also a statistic. He is one of thousands of young Kazakhs who migrate in search of better salaries, better work and more political freedom. Many live in London and New York, global metropolitan centres.

And this year, for the first time in a decade, the outflow of migrants from Kazakhstan surpassed the inflow. The socio-demographic imbalance shows a clear brain drain, as those who leave the country are the youngest and the brightest while the incomers are mainly poor ethnic Kazakhs who were brought up in China, Mongolia and other surrounding countries.

Now a teaching assistant, at the IPC, Beisekeyev is in his natural habitat. He talks while he gazes upon award-winning photographs hanging from the walls. Outside, New York City is cold. The thermometer indicates minus 15C, but wind gusts make it feel even colder than Almaty, where Beisekeyev was planning to live his life.

“At some point, I came to the conclusion that Kazakhstan didn’t offer enough challenges,” he said.

Beisekeyev said that life in the United States wasn’t always easy, though. He said that in Kazakhstan he could fill a gallery and people would pay to see his photographs while in New York all he can get are internships or temporary jobs.

“I hope all I’m giving here will come back to me one day,” Beisekeyev muttered.
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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)

EU wants more gas from Central Asia/S.Caucasus

MARCH 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The European Union has identified Central Asia and the South Caucasus as a future source of energy that will, importantly, reduce its reliance on Russia.

In an interview with the FT, Maros Sefcovic, the European Commission’s vice-president for energy affairs, said that the region could become a major supplier of gas to the EU.
In particular, the EU is looking to Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. It has diligently invested time and money building up relations and pipeline infrastructure over the past few years in the region.

Now, as relations with Russia sour over the Kremlin’s support for separatists in Ukraine, the EU is speeding up its search for alternative sources of energy.

And in Central Asia and the South Caucasus it will find a willing partner. The fallout over the drop in Russia’s economy and the collapse in energy prices have been severe and governments are looking for alternative markets. Europe may be bureaucratic but it is stable and reliable.

Turkmenistan’s government was quick to respond positively to the EU’s smoke signals.
It’s a different scenario in countries which don’t produce energy.

Armenia is reliant on Russia’s Gazprom for its energy. It has had to ask for a gas price discount, pulling it more and more under the influence of the Kremlin.

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(News report from Issue No. 221, published on March 4 2015)