JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s foreign ministry confirmed that three Kyrgyz — a pilot and two flight attendants working for a private airline — died in an attack by masked gunmen on a hotel in Tripoli, Libya on Jan. 27. Initial reports from Libya mistook the Kyrgyz for Tajiks.
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(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)
JAN. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Russian parliament ratified a new alliance with the Georgian rebel region of Abkhazia. The deal will increase Russia’s military presence in the region. Georgia denounced the deal as aggressive. Russia also plans to sign a similar pact with South Ossetia, another Georgian breakaway region.
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(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)
JAN. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Tajikistan want to build six new cement-making plants, media reported quoting government officials. Currently Tajikistan is an importer of cement. It wants to become a net exporter of cement. Chinese investment has fueled a building boom in Tajikistan over the past couple of years.
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(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)
JAN. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The price of wheat in Kyrgyzstan has reached a record high because of a poor crop last year, high energy prices and the falling value of the Kyrgyz som, media quoted media reported. Kyrgyz households are sensitive to food price fluctuations as they spend around 60% of their income on food.
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(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015
JAN. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Japanese industrial conglomerate Toshiba is negotiating with Kazakhstan to build a new nuclear reactor, media reported. Kazakhstan has been looking to build a new nuclear power station for years. It has earmarked a position for the power station but not yet started work.
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(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)
JAN. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — At least 2,500 people protested in the city of Jala-abad in south Kyrgyzstan against the publication of cartoons depicting the Prophet Mohammed in the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo, media reported. The protest was sanctioned by the authorities and is a reminder of the strong Islamic sentiment in the region.
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(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)
>>Pressure building on the C.Bank as lari hits 10-year lows>>
JAN. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s economic policymakers have said that they will not intervene to halt the fall in the value of the lari currency.
Pressure has been building on the Central Bank as the lari has lost 7% of its value against the US dollar this year, adding to a 12% loss at the end of 2014.
But economy minister, Giorgi Kadagidze, said that the Central Bank would not start spending its reserves to prop up the currency.
The lari is now trading at over 2 to the US dollar. This is the cheapest that the lari has been for over a decade.
The big worry for Georgian economic decision makers is that inflation will start creeping up.
At its last meeting on interest rates in December, the Central Bank elected to keep the key rate unchanged. The Central Bank chief, Giorgi Kadagidze, said that if there was any hint of inflationary pressure appearing he would raise interest rates.
Georgia had been less affected by the turmoil in Russia’s economy and the drop in oil prices over the past six months. Clearly the poor economic data is beginning to catch up with it.
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(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)
JAN. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — BP said it had cut 255 jobs from its operations in Azerbaijan as a result of the sharp drop in oil prices over the past six months. The 255 jobs represents 8% of its total workforce in Azerbaijan. The redundancies highlighted the impact of the oil price drop on the country.
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(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)
>>The US says Azerbaijan has made the issue political>>
JAN. 28 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Azerbaijani government cancelled a property agreement with the US on construction of a new embassy building in Baku because of criticism of its election in 2013, a US State Department report released this month said.
Relations between Azerbaijan and the US have nose-dived recently. Last month, Azerbaijani police raided the office of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, which is funded by the US government.
The State Department’s report adds more evidence that relations between the two countries has worsened.
“The mission’s top management priority is the construction of a new embassy building to replace the overcrowded and physically vulnerable 100-year-old chancery and a separate commercial annex one mile away,” the US State department report wrote.
“The Azerbaijani Government has frustrated at least seven US site acquisition efforts over the past decade. Most recently, the government cancelled a signed property agreement after the United States criticised the 2013 election.”
Azerbaijan has pressured human rights activists and independent media over the past few years, attracting heavy criticism from the US and Europe.
Azerbaijani political analyst Zardusht Alizade agreed the Azerbaijani authorities were using the row over the building of a new US embassy in Baku to frustrate the US.
“The Azerbaijani government does not want American embassy to extend here and to hire more people,” he said.
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(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)
JAN. 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan extended the pre-trial detention of journalist Khadija Ismayilova, prompting criticism from Europe’s democracy watchdog, the OSCE. Ms Ismayilova is a critic of the government. She is accused of coaxing another journalist into suicide.
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(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)