MARCH 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkmenistan hosted a meeting of the Caspian Sea littoral states’ fisheries organisations in Ashgabat on March 4 to discuss a draft agreement on exploiting the sea, media reported. The meeting is part of a series ahead of a summit in Astrakhan, Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)
MARCH 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A meeting between Georgia’s special representative on Russia, Zurab Abashidze, and the Russian deputy foreign minister Grigory Karasin has been postponed for the second time this month. Mr Abashidze and Mr Karasin were due to discuss bilateral ties. Georgia has said it supports the revolution in Ukraine, angering Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)
MARCH 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia’s move into Ukraine has given Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev some major problems.
He is friendly with Russia and its president Vladimir Putin. Kazakhstan is part of the Russia-led Customs Union and various other trade and military groups.
Like Mr Putin, Mr Nazarbayev the sight of protesters in Kiev defeating the riot police would have chilled him.
So, up to this point, Kazakhstan is firmly on the same side as Russia. Where they might differ is on Russia’s invasion of Crimea and its encouragement of an independence referendum. Russia has said it has had to act to protect Russian speakers in Ukraine.
And this is the problem. If Russia legitimises its action to defend Russian speakers in Ukraine, where does it stop?
One of Mr Nazarbayev’s key projects has been to make the country more Kazakh. He has succeed, to a large extent. Kazakh is far more widely spoken than it once was; many Russians who had lived in Kazakhstan have left while Kazakhs living abroad have returned.
But northern Kazakhstan is still majority ethnic Russian and Mr Nazarbayev doesn’t want Russia to give out any wrong ideas. Some prominent Russian figures are already calling for northern Kazakhstan to join with Russia.
In a phone call with Mr Putin on March 10, Mr Nazarbayev’s press service said he had expressed his support for defending minorities in Ukraine. He may have said this through gritted teeth.
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(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)
MARCH 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan issued a forceful statement on Ukraine which said emphatically that ousted president Viktor Yanukovych was no longer the country’s leader. Instead it said: “The only source of power in any country is its people.” Kyrgyzstan has ousted two presidents in revolutions since 2005.
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(News report from Issue No. 175, published on March 12 2014)
MARCH 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Petrovietnam, Vietnam’s state-owned energy company, has agreed to buy 3.5m barrels of Azeri crude oil this year, it said in a statement. The deal is a significant success for Azerbaijan which is looking to extend its client base and its international standing.
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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)
MARCH 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s an unusual but, apparently, mutually beneficial deal. For the second year, Azerbaijan has agreed to sponsor the shirts of Spanish football team Atletico Madrid.
The new deal, for an unspecified amount, will mean that Atletico Madrid’s shirts carry the slogan “Azerbaijan: Land of Fire” until June 2015.
“In just one year, we have been able to project the image of Azerbaijan for the world and promote bilateral relations between our countries,” said Atletico Madrid president Enrique Cerezo at a press conference.
It’s a relatively unusual approach for a sovereign state to sponsor a football team but Azerbaijan seems happy with the deal. The Qatar Foundation, run by the wife of Qatar’s ruler, sponsors Barcelona.
But, as is often the case with Azerbaijan, its sponsorship of Atletico Madrid has been mired by recent controversy.
Some Atletico Madrid players were encouraged to make youtube clips commemorating an alleged massacre by Armenian forces in 1992. A plan was also reportedly hatched by Azerbaijani officials for Atletico Madrid players to wear black armbands too. This was later scrapped.
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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)
FEB. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in France ruled against extraditing Georgia’s former defence minister, Davit Kezerashvili, because the corruption case against him is potentially politically motivated. The ruling is a blow for Georgia’s government which has been pursuing ministers who worked under former President Mikheil Saakashvili.
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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)
FEB. 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia’s parliament has pass a bill to tighten military ties with Armenia, local media reported. The bill is likely to mean an increase of military kit for Armenia from Russia. It is important for Armenia as it underlines Russia as one of its main backers.
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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)
FEB. 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan is not known as a global football powerhouse but Sepp Blatter, the president of the game’s global governing body FIFA, is due to visit for two days on March 24/25, media reported. During his visit, Mr Blatter will watch a local football match.
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(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)
MARCH 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Unsurprisingly, perhaps, both ordinary Georgians and Georgia’s government have voiced their support for Ukraine’s revolution.
Hundreds of people protested outside Russia’s embassy in Tbilisi at what they said was Russian aggression in Ukraine. A few days earlier, Georgia had been one of the first countries to apparently recognise the post-revolution government in Ukraine as the legitimate authority.
“The Georgian Foreign Ministry hopes that the new government will take effective steps to meet expectations of the Ukrainian people,” Georgian media quoted its government as saying.
Fairly unequivocal and unsurprising.
But it’s a sensitive time for Georgia to start aligning itself with Moscow’s allies. The new Georgian government is only just patching up the wounds from the war it fought with Russia in 2008. High level meetings have been scheduled between officials from both sides. These meetings may now be under threat.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 174, published on March 5 2014)