OCT. 7 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh Central Bank will probably delay its high-profile move to Astana from Almaty because of the worsening financial crisis, Central Bank chief Kariat Kelimbetov said. The Central Bank is the last remaining major government institution based in Almaty. It was slated to move to Astana by 2017.
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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)
OCT. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan’s president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov reshuffled his top security officials, according to state media. Begench Gundogdiyev, minister of defence, was demoted to head of the navy. The head of the national security service, Yaylym Berdiyev was appointed as the new defence minister.
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(News report from Issue No. 251, published on Oct. 9 2015)
OCT. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The imprisonment of a former mayor of Tbilisi from the opposition United National Movement (UNM) has underscored fears that Georgia’s governing Georgian Dream (GD) is using the judiciary to settle scores.
Gigi Ugulava’s conviction came just after the Constitutional Court ruled that holding him 14 months in pre-trial detention was unconstitutional and set him free. Twenty-four hours later a court convicted him of using his position to give out hundreds of jobs to UNM loyalists and sentenced him to 4.5 years.
A former youth leader representing the “new guard” that brought Mikheil Saakashvilli to power after the Rose Revolution, Ugulava entered the mayor’s office before he turned 30. After the GD’s victory in parliamentary elections in 2012, he was forced from office in December 2013 amid accusations of misuse of funds.
The conviction of Ugulava is a harsh blow to the UNM in advance of the pivotal October 2016 parliamentary elections, a repeat of the 2012 contest that toppled Saakashvilli and eventually led to his leaving the country and his citizenship rather than face criminal charges.
Like a number of UNM officials, Saakashvilli is now plying his reformism for the new Western darling Ukraine, where he is now governor of Odessa.
Saakashvilli’s energetic reformism in Georgia produced massive overhauls in public administration and policing that are still considered among the best in the non-Baltic former Soviet Union.
But his centralization of power and demonisation of opponents, including through Ugulava’s position as head of the capital’s administration, eventually sparked the Georgian Dream backlash.
Georgia is grappling with the problem common across Eurasia of how to consolidate rule of law after a transition in government.
Uprooting corruption may well require prosecuting former officials, but it is hard to escape the sense that GD is repaying UNM its own repression in kind, rather than building a common polity where diverse parties can compete without fear of persecution if they lose or fall out with the ruling elite.
The cycle of accumulation, revolution, and persecution appears on track to continue which is bad news for Georgian democracy.
By NateSchekkan, programme director at Freedom House
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 25 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kuyrbanguly Berdymukhamedov is a man of many achievements. Not only is he a self- styled father figure for the Turkmen people but he is also a champion jockey and a leading intellectual.
Now, is appears, that he can add to this list the status of feted international botanist.
Official Turkmen media reported that at a book fair in Ashgabat, South Korean diplomats praised Mr Berdymukhamedov, a dentist by training, for producing a third volume of his book ‘Medical plants of Turkmenistan’.
Like the first two volumes of ‘Medical plants of Turkmenistan’ this book has already been translated into Korean and distributed to libraries around the country, South Korean diplomats were quoted as saying.
And the Turkmen media had more.
“Speakers at the presentation emphasised the importance of research work by the head of the Turkmen State into healing properties of plants,” it reported, adding that Mr Berdymukhamedov’s research had been translated dozens of times.
As well as the research, there may, of course be another reason for the South Korean interest in Mr Berdymukhamedov’s books. South Korean is an important investor in Turkmenistan’s economy.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Kazakh government has said it is considering cutting taxes for oil producers to encourage them to raise output. Some energy companies operating in Kazakhstan, especially the smaller ones, have said they will not produce oil until prices recover. Kazakhstan has cut its projected oil production in 2015 by 1m tonnes to 79.5m tonnes.
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(News report from Issue No. 250, published on Oct. 2 2015)
SEPT. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Steven Seagal, the Hollywood actor best known for his 1980s and 1990s martial arts movies, pitched up in Azerbaijan to meet President Ilham Aliyev for a chat and photo op.
His acting commitments have waned but the 63-year-old appears to have created a decent business giving pep talks to leaders of ex-Soviet states. His clients include President Vladimir Putin in Russia.
Now Mr Aliyev’ clearly felt he needed Mr Seagal’s help. Relations with Europe and the US have worsened over human rights and vote monitoring.
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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)
SEPT. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The members of Georgia’s new Banking Supervisory Board are all close allies of former PM Bidzina Ivanishvili, drawing immediate allegations of cronyism. The Banking Supervisory Board replaces the Central Bank as the authority over commercial banks. The head of the board is Konstantine Sulamanidze, former CEO of Progress Bank in which Mr Ivanishvili owns a stake.
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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)
SEPT. 22 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan will establish a national energy holding next year, Kubanychbek Turdubayev, Kyrgyz minister of energy, said in a statement. The government has said that it hopes that a single energy holding would improve efficiency.
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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)
SEPT. 20 2015, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajik security forces detained 13 leaders from the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) and accused them of being linked to attacks this month that killed two dozen people.
Pressure has been mounting on the IRPT, the only real opposition party in Tajikistan, over the past few months. It’s leader, Muhiddin Kabiri, has fled into exile and the ministry of justice has said that the IRPT has to disband because it lacks members.
Now, the Tajik authorities have allegedly seized documents from IRPT office in Dushanbe that proves it was involved in attacks apparently lead by a disgruntled former deputy defence minister.
The IRPT denied links to attacks on two police stations on Sept. 4.
And on the streets of Dushanbe, this is view shared by some residents.
“I don’t think that IRPT are involved. The government is apparently getting rid of former Civil War opposition members,” a Dushanbe resident called Yahyo said.
A Dushanbe analyst agreed and said that Pre.s Rakhmon had used the attacks to get rid of opponents.
“Rakhmon will further centralise the regime with these lies being his main tool,” he said, anonymously.
The authorities also said they killed Gen. Abduhalim Nazarzoda, the ex-deputy defence minister blamed for organising the attacks (Sept. 19).
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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)
SEPT. 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A group of men dragged Smbat Hakobian, a member of an Armenian opposition group, away from a march and beat him, Human Rights Watch (HRW) said. HRW said this was the 2nd time an opposition activist had been beaten in the past year.
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(News report from Issue No. 249, published on Sept. 25 2015)