MARCH 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Two sets of demonstrators, one supporting Russia and one against Russia, clashed briefly in central Tbilisi. Feelings are running high in Tbilisi which has firmly backed Ukraine’s revolution and US calls for Russia to quit Crimea.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 31 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — After a meeting of the Chinese and Tajik defence ministers in Dushanbe, China pledged to help boost Tajikistan’s military, media reported. China has ramped up its support to Tajikistan over the past couple of years. It has built roads, dug mines and helped upgrade the Tajik military.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s still unclear if Russia’s de facto annexation of Crimea has given Georgia’s drive to become part of NATO any real impetus.
Certainly, the Georgian government was hoping that this was the case. But the signals have been mixed.
At a meeting in Brussels, US President Barack Obama said that neither Georgia or Ukraine would join NATO soon.
“Neither Ukraine nor Georgia are currently on a path to NATO membership,” he said. “There has not been any immediate plans for expansion of NATO’s membership.”
This will have hurt Georgia’s government. It has been a keen supporter of NATO missions, including to Afghanistan. On as TV interview the following day, Georgian President Giorgi Margvelashvili summed up the disappointment.
“Of course it was not a statement that caused much of our delight,” he said.
A week later, though, NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen was preparing to make a speech in which he will pledge more support for Georgia.
These are difficult, and confusing, times for aspirant-NATO members.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Sepp Blatter has spent much of his career as FIFA president fending off allegations of institutional corruption. Even so, Tajikistan must have come as a shock.
Mr Blatter visited Tajikistan as part of a tour of Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan which culminated in a meeting of UEFA, Europe’s governing football body, in Astana (March 25-28).
He was greeted off the plane at Dushanbe airport by Rustam Emomali, son of President Emomai Rakhmon and head of the Tajik Football Federation. Mr Emomalii also owns and occasionally plays for FC Istiqlol, who thrashed FC Ravshan 5-0 in the Tajik Super Cup final with Blatter in attendance.
Not everyone is happy with FC Istiqlol’s dominance, though. In 2011 a match between the same two sides triggered a riot when FC Ravshan’s supporters concluded that FC Istiqlol had bought the referee.
Police arrested 20 people and at least 10 people were hospitalised during fighting between the Ravshan Ultras and the security forces.
Memories of a five year civil war (1992-97) limit opposition towards Mr Rakhmon’s presidency, although anger with the president does appear to be growing. One irk is that he directs much foreign investment towards his hometown of Danghara while other parts of the country struggle for electricity.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Russian weather rocket crashed near a village in western Kazakhstan, media reported. There were no casualties. The Kazakh authorities banned further Russian rocket launches over its territory.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Armenia firmly staked out its position on international affairs when it voted against a motion in the UN General Assembly to reaffirm the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
It was join by a dubious list of 10 other countries that also voted against the motion which asked for Crimea to be restored to Ukraine after the de facto annexation last month by Russia.
The list is telling. Armenia now, it appears, keeps company with a range of countries variously described as eccentric, awkward and anti-capitalist. It includes North Korea, Zimbabwe, Cuba and Syria.
For Armenia, this feels like a watershed. It has increasingly leaned towards Russia over the past few years. Moscow gives Armenia much financial and military support. And it needs both. Armenia is wedged between two enemies — Turkey and Azerbaijan and needs as many allies as it can gather.
Last year Armenia turned its back on further EU integration in favour of the Russia-led Customs Union.
But Central Asian countries have also chosen a pro-Russia agenda. Yet they were able to abstain from voting during the Ukraine UN Assembly debate.
If there was ever any doubt on where Armenia’s loyalty lies, there isn’t any more. Armenia’s UN Assembly vote underlines its trajectory.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 31 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ahead of the UN Assembly vote on Ukraine, the Pacific nation of Tuvalu dealt Russia a blow by cutting ties and setting up relations with Georgia. Tuvalu had been one of the few countries to recognise the Russia-sponsored Georgian breakaway states of South Ossetia and Abkhazia as independent in 2008.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
APRIL 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s Central Bank ordered commercial banks to stop taking wire transfers from Russia’s Zolotaya Korona, threatening the country’s remittances lifeline.
Remittances are crucial to Uzbekistan. According to the World Bank, remittances from Russia account for roughly 16% of Uzbekistan’s GDP.
This figure, although, large still underplays the importance of remittances to the Uzbek economy.
They are an essential lifeblood to the much of the population, feeding entire families and beating away poverty.
It makes the unexplained announcement by the Uzbek Central Bank all the more puzzling. Zolotaya Korona, which means Golden Crown, is the most popular system for Uzbeks working in Russia to wire cash home.
Forcing users onto another system, creates an additional barrier.
A couple of days after issuing the ban, the Uzbek Central Bank said it banned Zolotaya Korona because it thought that it was in poor financial health.
Officials at Zolotaya Korona, which is based in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk, have declined to comment on the Uzbek Central Bank’s decision.
In January, around a dozen Azerbaijani banks cut their links to Zolotaya Korona. They said that deals with the Russian company just weren’t profitable enough.
In 2012, Armenia’s Central Bank banned Zolotaya Korona from operating there because it was stopping some people using its services.
Whatever the reason for the Uzbek Central Bank’s sudden ban on Zolotaya Korona, the poor in Uzbekistan will suffer.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
APRIL 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s state oil fund bought an office block in Seoul, the capital of South Korea, for $447m, underlining its intent to continue a global shopping spree it started a couple of years ago.
The 25-story Pine Avenue Tower A is Azerbaijan’s first property purchase in the Asia Pacific region.
It follows high profile buys in London, Paris and Moscow in 2012.
Increasingly wealthy, Azerbaijan’s oil fund is worth about $34b. Azerbaijan has openly invested in property, currencies and equities in a drive to build growth and assets for future generations.
“This is a large transaction and shows our belief in the continued strength of major Asian real estate markets which have shown stable returns historically,” Shahmar Movsumov, director of the oil fund, said in a statement.
Critics of the Azerbaijani authorities, though, have said that the oil fund is being wasted on prestige projects. The oil fund expects to spend about $1b on real estate in Asia and Australia this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)
MARCH 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Arman Sahakian, an Armenian MP, said that roughly 600 Armenian families fled from Kessab, a town in Syria, last month after Islamic extremists captured it, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Armenia’s government has said it’s concerned about the fate of Armenians living there.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 178, published on April 2 2014)