JUNE 23 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police in Georgia accused former defence minister Irakli Okruashvili of plotting a coup in May, media reported. Mr Okrushavili had been a close ally of Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili but he fled the country in 2007 shortly after setting up an opposition party. He now lives in France.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 46, published on June 28 2011)
JUNE 6 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The death of Abkhazia’s President, Sergey Bagapsh, on May 29 removed a steadying influence on the volatile province and forces both Russia and Georgia to re-consider their strategy towards it.
A surprise visit by Russian PM Vladimir Putin to Bagapsh’s funeral in Abkhazia five days later underlined just how important control of the breakaway Georgian region is to Russia.
Abkhazia has been a de facto independent state since a war against Georgia after the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union. Russia recognised Abkhazia — and South Ossetia, another rebel Georgian region — as an independent state in 2008 after it also fought Georgia in a brief war.
Bagapsh was considered a competent technocrat capable of uniting different factions and able to balance Russia’s interests — geo-political, military, economic — in the region with more nationalistic local politicians.
He had been president of Abkhazia since 2005. According to the constitution, Abkhazia now has three months to hold a presidential election.
There are three main candidates to replace Bagapsh: vice-President Aleksandr Ankvab, PM Sergey Shamba and Raul Khadjimba, Bagapsh’s former opponent. A power vacuum in Abkhazia could pull in Georgia which still hopes to reclaim the region and South Ossetia.
This tension between Russia and Georgia over Abkhazia is never far away. On June 3 Georgia said it had arrested two residents of Abkhazia for trying to plant a bomb on behalf of Russia.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 43, published on June 6 2011)
JUNE 1 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian gas giant Gazprom nominated Timur Kulibayev, Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s son-in-law, to be one of its directors, media reported. Mr Kulibayev has become increasingly powerful. He is considered a potential successor for Mr Nazarbayev and this year he became head of Kazakhstan’s $80b sovereign wealth fund.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 43, published on June 6 2011)
MAY 25/26 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – In the worst street violence in Georgia since a state of emergency in November 2007, police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at anti- government protesters blocking the main street in Tbilisi. The government said protesters had started the violence, the protesters said it was unprovoked. A car speeding away from the protest hit and killed two people.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 42, published on May 30 2011)
MAY 22 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Security forces fired rubber bullets to disperse anti-government demonstrators in central Tbilisi, some of whom had attacked plain-clothed police with sticks during the worst street violence in Georgia since a state of emergency in 2007. The day before, about 6,000 protesters had called for President Mikheil Saakashvili to resign.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 41, published on May 24 2011)
MAY 15 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A parliamentary committee in Kyrgyzstan cleared first deputy PM Omurbek Babanov of corruption, media reported, giving the fragile government coalition a boost. Mr Babanov had stepped down a month ago while the corruption charges were being investigated.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 40, published on May 17 2011)
MAY 6 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a case that highlighted the porous border controls in Central Asia, Kazakh PM Karim Massimov said he had sacked the head of Kazakhstan’s customs agency after security forces broke up a smuggling ring which had bribed officials to operate freely across a border with China for five years.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 39, published on May 9 2011)
APRIL 18 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A corruption scandal over the privatisation in 2008 of Kyrgyz mobile operator MegaCom and its part re-nationalisation last year is testing the survival skills of Kyrgyzstan’s fragile government coalition.
On March 31, President Roza Otunbayeva sacked Prosecutor-General Kubatbek Baibolov for his links to the scandal. But Mr Baibolov didn’t go quietly and he accused first deputy PM Omurbek Babanov of corruption.
Mr Babanov is head of the Respublika party, one of three partners in a precarious coalition cobbled together at the end of 2010. On April 13, Mr Babanov quit the government while a parliamentary committee investigated the allegations.
For now, his resignation appears to have prevented a split in the coalition but tempers are fraying and a few days before his resignation a fight broke out in parliament.
Corruption is widespread in Kyrgyzstan — ranked by the Berlin-based lobby group Transparency International at 164 out of 178 in its 2010 Corruption Perceptions Index — but the country desperately needs a stable 2011 after a difficult 2010.
Kyrgyzstan hosts both a Russian and US air base and is trying to attract foreign investors, particularly to its mining sector, but in 2010 a revolution, ethnic violence and a new Constitution which shifted power to parliament from the president all underlined its fragility.
Now rampant poverty amplified by soaring inflation and frustration at official corruption are stirring unease once again.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 36, published on April 18 2011)
APRIL 12 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s government named President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s son-in-law Timur Kulibayev as head of the country’s $80b sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna. Mr Kulibayev had previously been deputy head. The move secures Mr Nazarbayev’s hold over the most important elements of the economy.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 36, published on April 18 2011)
APRIL 11 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh PM Karim Massimov moved the head of the state’s investment fund Samruk-Kazyna, Kairat Kelimbetov to be minister for economic development. President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s son-in-law, Timur Kulibayev is currently deputy head of the Samruk-Kazyna, which controls vast swathes of the country’s economy. He could be promoted.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 35, published on April 11 2011)