APRIL 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Greece rejected an extradition request from Georgia for its ex-domestic intelligence chief, Data Akhalaia. Reports did not specify just why Greece’s Supreme Court had turned down Georgia’s request but Europe and the US have accused Georgia of using the law to settle vendettas.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 27 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov will travel to Astana to meet with Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev soon, Kazakh media reported. This is important because Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan are partnering up on a rail project linking Central Asia with Iran.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia has filed an extradition request to Azerbaijan for former president Mikheil Saakashvili, media reported. Mr Saakashvili, who is now based in New York and Kiev and is an adviser to the pro- Western Ukraine government, is visiting Azerbaijan for a conference.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian gas monopoly Gazprom has agreed to lower the price of gas it sells to consumers in Armenia by 13%, media reported quoting Gazprom chairman Alexei Miller. Gazprom owns the gas pipelines in Armenia.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 29 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Cycling’s Astana Pro Team, a Kazakhstan-backed franchise, will retain its World Tour Licence despite allegations of mass doping (April 24).
The International Cycling Union’s Licence Commission’s decision surprised many who had been urging it to take strong action to clean up the sport.
The International Cycling Union suggested in February that Astana Pro Team would lose its licence over what it described as “compelling grounds” that it had doped.
This would have embarrassed Kazakhstan. Last year an Astana Pro Team rider, Vincenzo Nibali, won the Tour de France.
Some online stories suggested that the International Cycling Union wanted to avoid a legal case with Astana Pro Team and so dodged scrapping its licence. Instead it said Astana Pro Team would be subject to special conditions next season.
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(News report from Issue No. 229, published on April 29 2015)
APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – On a visit to Seoul, Uzbekistan’s military signed deals with its South Korean counterparts aimed at deepening cooperation. South Korea’s influence in Central Asia, where it has large diasporas, is an important issue to monitor.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – French President Francois Hollande will visit Baku for talks with Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev on April 25, media reported. France has developed strong business links with Azerbaijan, especially in transport.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Georgian parliamentary delegation visited Kiev in an overt show of support for Ukraine’s pro-West government. The Kiev government is battling rebels in the east of Ukraine.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan extended a ban on the import of Russian oil products by an extra month until May 20. An original 45-day ban had been due to end on April 20. Kazakhstan imposed the ban because an imbalance in the Russian rouble-Kazakh tenge exchange rate has triggered an influx of cheap Russian oil products.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)
APRIL 21 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Taking a conciliatory approach, Turkish PM Ahmet Davutoglu said Turkey would mark the 100th anniversary of the killings of thousands of Armenians by Ottoman Turks with a ceremony in Istanbul for the first time. This a concession by Turkey, although it refuses to call the killings a genocide.
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(News report from Issue No. 228, published on April 22 2015)