JAN. 23 (The Conway Bulletin) — Looking to give the Kazakh language a boost, Kazakhstan said that it was planning on translating 30 of the world’s bestselling books this year. Kazakh is becoming the predominant language in Kazakhstan and is spoken by more people than Russian. Russian, though, retains its position as the language of business and government.
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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019
JAN. 29 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia’s Central Bank cut its key interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 5.75%, its first downgrade since February 2017. It said that low inflation was the root cause of this downgrade. Most of the region has been suffering from low prices since countries recovered from an economic downturn in 2014-17.
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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019
JAN. 25 (The Conway Bulletin) — As part of improved bilateral relations, Turkmenistan will start pumping its oil via Russia, reducing flows through the BTC pipeline that runs from Azerbaijan, through Georgia to Turkey, analysts told Reuters. The reduction in Turkmen flows will also lower the quality of the oil from BTC as its oil is considered high-quality.
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>This story was first published in issue 398 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 31 2019
Copyright The Conway Bulletin 2019
TASHKENTJAN. 8 (The Conway Bulletin) — The authorities in Uzbekistan have freed from prison businessman Mirodil Jalolov, former CEO of Zeromax — once the country’s biggest company.
His wife told RFE/RL that a court released Mr Mirodli after a short hearing linked to corruption charges. In 2010, when a closed-court jailed him, the charges against Mr Mirodli were not released.
Zeromax had once been an all-powerful conglomerate with stakes in a range of assets across Uzbekistan from mining, to football, to logistics. Analysts had said Zeromax was ultimately owned by Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Islam Karimov, the former Uzbek president.
She has been in jail since 2014 when she was arrested on various corruption charges. Her father died in 2016.
Mr Mirodli was arrested in 2010 shortly after the Uzbek government took control of Zeromax. It said it had seized Zeromax’s assets because it owed its creditors $500m. Some analysts saw the move as a revolt by rival regime members and the first public sign of decline for the once all-powerful Karimov family.
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>>This story was first published in issue 396 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 11 2019
JAN. 18 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia will continue its role as a transit country for gas supplies between Russia and Armenia, Georgian PM Mamuka Bakhtadze said. Until January 2017, Russia had paid Georgia by giving it 10% of the total gas it sent to neighbouring Armenia. Since 2018, it has paid a fee. This year, after Russia increased gas prices, Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan said he wanted to buy more gas from Iran.
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>>This story was first published in issue 397 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 20 2019
JAN. 17 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s Pasha Bank doubled its share of the corporate lending market in 2018, the ratings agency Standard & Poor’s said. It said that Pasha’s share had increased to 17% of the market from 9%. Pasha has been looking to expand its loan portfolio in both Azerbaijan and also in Georgia and Turkey, markets that now make up a quarter of its loans.
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>>This story was first published in issue 397 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 20 2019
JAN. 17 (The Conway Bulletin) — French vehicle conversion company Gruau is considering setting up a plant in Uzbekistan, media reported. It reported that Gruau’s vice-president for international development, Sylvain Sene, had been in the country scoping out the prospect. Gruau is considered a world leader in converting vehicles for specialist uses such as for disabled people and the security forces.
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>>This story was first published in issue 397 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 20 2019
JAN. 12 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Khujand, north Tajikistan, sentenced journalist Khayrullo Mirsaidov to eight months in prison in absentia for breaking the conditions of his earlier release from prison by fleeing the country. Mr Mirsaidov left Tajikistan shortly after a court released him from prison in August 2018. He had been given a 12-year prison sentence earlier in 2018 for various financial crimes but was released after international pressure. Mr Mirsaidov said the charges had been fabricated after he complained of corruption.
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>>This story was first published in issue 397 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 20 2019
DUSHANBE/JAN. 11 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajik Air suspended its flights and sent staff home on unpaid leave, setting off speculation that it was about to declare bankruptcy.
Somon Air, Tajikistan’s privately-owned airline, is likely to be the main beneficiary of the bankruptcy. It has said that it will accept Tajik Air tickets for now and has already announced plans to lay on another weekly flight to Moscow from Dushanbe.
Tajik Air had operated three ageing Boeings on its international routes to Russia, Central Asian capitals and China, and Soviet-era Antonov planes on its domestic routes.
The Dushanbe-based Asia Plus news agency quoted officials at Tajik Air as saying that staff had been sent home to “optimise costs in difficult times”.
A source, though, said that bankruptcy was imminent.
“We have been systematically approaching this point in recent years,” Asia Plus quoted the unnamed source as saying. “The company has been kept on a weak oxygen feed, mastering its resources in a roundabout way in its own interests.”
He said that Tajik Air was often used to buy jet fuel from traders and then to sell it on to other aviation companies at inflated prices.
“The bulk of the profit of Tajik Air was derived through aviation kerosene” he said.
The jet fuel business is closely linked to corruption, although there have been no allegations of Tajik Air involvement in any unlawful practices.
As well as financial issues, Tajik Air has also had a patchy safety record and has regularly been ranked as one of the world’s 20 worst airlines to fly with. In 1993 a Tajik Air Yak-40 plane crashed while taking off at Khorog Airport, killing 82 people.
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>>This story was first published in issue 397 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 20 2019
JAN. 15 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan has started registering reservists because of concerns over militants in neighbouring Afghanistan, sources at the ministry of defence told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.
Turkmenistan has periodically raised concerns over fighting in neighbouring provinces in Afghanistan. In 2015, President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov ordered all reservists to undertake their first mass military exercise since the 1991 break up of the Soviet Union. This was repeated in 2016, and in 2017 he signed another decree calling up for military service all men over the age of 18.
Analysts have said that Turkmen officials are concerned about worsening stability on their southern border with Afghanistan.
The RFE/RL source said that men under 50 had been told to register with the military. Turkmenistan is officially neutral.
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>>This story was first published in issue 397 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 20 2019