NOV. 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s energy transport monopoly KazTransGas regained control of its Georgian subsidiary, KazTransGas-Tbilisi. Georgia had effectively expropriated the company in 2009 over unpaid debt. KazTransGas- Tbilisi owns a 2,400km gas distribution system in Georgia.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)
NOV. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Tajik somoni currency has fallen by 7% against the US dollar this year and 2% in the last week, mainly due to the falling value of the Russian rouble, threatening its economic stability. Remittances from Russia account for around half of Tajikistan’s GDP.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)
NOV. 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kakha Bendukidze, Georgian economy minister under President Mikheil Saakhashvili and architect of the country’s massive privatisation drive, died suddenly in London aged 58.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)
NOV. 18 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Italian energy company ENI said it had signed a deal with Turkmenistan to extend its operations in the country.
The deal is important for ENI because it has been criticised for its operations in Kazakhstan, particularly its running of the delayed and over budget Kashagan field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea. By extending its presence in Turkmenistan, something that the company has been working on all year, ENI underlines its commitment to Central Asia.
At a signing ceremony alongside Italian PM Matteo Renzi, Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov said that ENI had agreed a deal to extend one onshore production sharing agreement and three offshore exploration areas.
“We have come to a conclusion that there must be an active investment ideology present in our countries’ relations,” he said without giving any more terms of the deals.
China is Turkmenistan’s main gas client but Europe is also becoming more important. Earlier this month it signed a deal with a consortium building a pipeline from Baku to central Europe. This pipeline will deliver Turkmen gas to central Europe for the first time.
Turkmenistan is estimated to hold the world’s fourth largest gas reserves.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)
NOV. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Pro-Russian demonstrators in Bishkek protested against a visit to Kyrgyzstan by US billionaire philanthropist George Soros, an unusual welcome for a man who spends millions of dollars on the country each year.
Up to 170 protesters, including the head of Kyrgyzstan’s only real Communist Party, carried slogans such as “USA – Get your hands off sovereign Kyrgyzstan” and “Soros – Let us live in peace and friendship”.
Mr Soros, a US citizen, was in Bishkek for the first time in 10 years to meet with representatives of his Open Society Foundation and President Almazbek Atambayev.
The Open Society’s budget for 2013 was $2.2 million, mostly spent on health, education and governance programs. State-controlled Russian news outlet RIA Novosti made little mention of the foundation’s work but applauded the protests, noting spuriously that Soros’ last visit to the country in 2004 was accompanied by a revolution the following year.
“Of course, there is no direct proof that he came to realise different aims. However, there is no reason to believe a citizen of the United States,” the RIA-Novosti report said.
At their meeting, Mr Atambayev thanked Mr Soros for his continued contributions to the country. Kyrgyzstan’s parliament, though, appears less impressed. It is due to consider a Russia-inspired bill that will force all foreign-funded NGOs — including Mr Soros’s Open Society Foundation — to register as foreign agents.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)
NOV. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An estimated 30,000 people crammed into the centre of Tbilisi for perhaps the largest anti-government rally since the Georgian Dream coalition defeated the party of former President Mikheil Saakashvili in a parliamentary election in 2012 and a presidential election in 2013.
The demonstrators waved Georgian flags and pictures of Mr Saakashvili, who now lives in New York and is wanted by Georgia’s prosecutors for various alleged crimes, and shouted anti-Russia slogans.
They blamed Russia for annexing the rebel states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Importantly they also blamed their current government for not standing up to Russia.
Mr Saakashvili addressed the crowd via a Kiev video-link.
“Let’s show Georgia’s government that the nation is united against the serious threat to its independence, its future,” he said.
The importance of the rally, though, was not the appearance of Mr Saakashvili on a video-link but its size. It hasn’t taken long for the glamour of the Georgian Dream coalition to fade.
Allies in the EU and the United States have accused Georgian Dream of petty revenge tactics in pursuing former ministers and charging them with various crimes. Earlier this month PM Irakli Garibashvili also sacked the popular defence minister, Irakli Alasania, triggering a wave of resignations.
Street politics are still a major force in Georgia and the rally could be a sign that after a relatively calm 12 months, instability is returning to Georgian politics.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)
NOV. 13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Canadian miner Stans Energy said Kyrgyzstan was trying to revoke its licences for two rare earth mines that it owns. The row is part of a long-running dispute between Stans Energy and Kyrgyzstan. Stans Energy has said that it will quit Kyrgyzstan altogether, dealing another blow to the country’s investor image.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)
NOV. 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – US burger chain McDonalds will open its first restaurant in Kazakhstan next year, the company announced. The question of if and when McDonalds would finally open a restaurant in Kazakhstan — also its first in Central Asia — has been pondered for years.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)
NOV. 12-13 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Iranian president Hasan Rouhani visited Baku on his first official trip to Azerbaijan since becoming Iran’s leader in 2013. The trip was friendly, a turnaround in Iran-Azerbaijan relations. Under former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the two neighbours had seemingly edged close to war.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)
NOV. 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A suicide bomber injured three Georgian soldiers guarding the Bagram air base in Afghanistan, media quoted Georgia’s ministry of defence as saying. Georgia has been an enthusiastic supporter of the US-led war in Afghanistan. It sees support as building momentum towards NATO membership.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)