Category Archives: Uncategorised

Value of Georgian wine exports rises 20%

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JAN. 4 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia earned 20% more from wine exports, an important part of both its economy and national identity, in 2018 than in 2017, the Georgian National wine Agency said. Russia was once again the top importer of Georgian wine, followed by Ukraine and then China. Georgia earned $203m from wine exports in 2018. The total volume of exports increased by 13%. Georgian wine experts have said that China will become its biggest wine foreign wine market over the next decade.
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>>This story was first published in issue 396 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 11 2019

Car sales in Kazakhstan rise

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DEC. 27 (The Conway Bulletin) — Car sales in Kazakhstan increased by 25.7% between January and November in 2018 compared to the same period in 2018, industry groups said. The data is more evidence that Kazakh consumers are gaining confidence after an economic downturn in 2015-17 triggered by a collapse in oil prices and recession in Russia. Of the 52, 467 cars sold during this period, nearly half were built in Kazakhstan.
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>>This story was first published in issue 396 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 11 2019

Georgia’s Orthodox Church avoids commenting on Ukraine-Russia split

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JAN. 7 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia’s Orthodox Church avoided a potentially difficult diplomatic scenario by not commenting on the split from the Russian Orthodox Church by the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Instead, two days after the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, Bartholomew I, signed a decree formalising the split, the Georgian Orthodox Church said that it would not be right for a junior patriarchate to comment on the status of more senior patriarchates. The Georgian Orthodox Church is ranked ninth in the seniority of Orthodox Churches, below the Russian Orthodox Church. Relations are still strained between Russia and Georgia since a war in 2008.
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>>This story was first published in issue 396 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 11 2019

Tajik soldiers killed on Afghan border

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JAN. 4 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Tajik soldier was killed on the border with Afghanistan during an operation to track down smugglers, government sources told AFP. The porous border is one of the main drug trafficking routes from Afghanistan. Shoot-outs and the kidnapping of locals, used as pawns to trade for captured Afghans, is commonplace.
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>>This story was first published in issue 396 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 11 2019

Oil shipments drop at Batumi

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JAN. 3 (The Conway Bulletin) — Oil shipments from the Georgian Black Sea port of Batumi fell by 51.2% in 2018, Reuters reported by quoting an unnamed official at the terminal which is operated by Kazakh oil and gas company Kazmunaigas. Azerbaijan’s decision to push oil shipments through the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline which it part-owns and a volume increase for the Caspian Pipeline Consortium from Kazakhstan to the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, are the main drivers of the drop-off at Batumi.
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>>This story was first published in issue 396 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 11 2019

Former Uzbek foreign minister appointed new gen-sec of SCO

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JAN. 1 (The Conway Bulletin) — Former Uzbek foreign minister Vladimir Norov replaced Tajikistan’s Rashid Alimov as general-secretary of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) for a three year term. The SCO is focused on Central Asia and is headed by Russia and China. It has become one of the most influential inter-governmental groups focused on the region.
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>>This story was first published in issue 396 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 11 2019

Pashinyan calls for more integration within the EEU

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DEC. 27 (The Conway Bulletin) — On a trip to Moscow to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin that was dominated by negotiations over Gazprom’s gas price increases, Armenian leader Nikol Pashinyan said he wanted to see more integration between members of the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union. Mr Pashinyan has been careful to maintain good relations with Russia since a revolution in Armenia in April/May 2018.
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>>This story was first published in issue 396 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 11 2019

Ethnic tension rises in Karaganda, Kazakhstan, after murder

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JAN. 1 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ethnic tension spiked in the central Kazakh city of Karaganda after a Kazakh man was allegedly stabbed to death in a bar by a group of Armenians. Less than a week later on Jan. 6, a couple of hundred angry Kazakh protesters gathered outside the regional police HQ to demand the police find the murderer.
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>>This story was first published in issue 396 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 11 2019

Uzbekistan hopes for bumper investments in 2019

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DEC. 26 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan hopes to attract $4.1b of investment in 2019, up by 71% from 2018, Shukhrat Vafayev, the deputy chairman of the State Investment Committee, told media. Mr Vafayev said that changes to the Uzbek tax regime since President Shavkat Mirziyoyev took over as leader in 2016, where one of the main reasons for the optimism. Alongside tourism and industry which are attracting major headlines, Mr Vafayev said that “another promising area is the processing of agricultural products and food production.”
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>>This story was first published in issue 396 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 11 2019

Trial of former Uzbek Prosecutor begins

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JAN. 7 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a secret courtroom in Tashkent the trial has begun of the once-feared Uzbek Prosecutor-General Rashidjon Qodirov, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported by quoting sources. Mr Rashidjon is accused of corruption and abuse of power. He was arrested in February 2018 during the tail-end of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev’s purge of the most hated of former president Islam Karimov’s top officials.
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>>This story was first published in issue 396 of The Conway Bulletin on Jan. 11 2019