FEB. 13 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Kazakhstan convicted the former head of the anti-monopoly commission, Murat Ospanov, of corruption and ordered him to pay a $6m fine. Government prosecutors had wanted an 11-year jail sentence. Kazakhstan has prosecuted several government officials in an aggressive anti-corruption campaign over the past year.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)
>>A row over a blog discussing Almaty’s architecture hits a sensitive nerve>>
ALMATY, FEB. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — “This is sick,” one commentator wrote. “You’re a monster,” wrote another.”
The offending photograph showed an old cottage here in Almaty decked in fine Russian vernacular architecture: carved eaves called karnizy, ornate window frames called nalichniki.
The picture had been, for full-disclosure, run through a muddy Instagram filter, and the house wasn’t in the best of shape. Yet the dissenting faction, trolls or otherwise, couldn’t find anything to admire.
“Why don’t you show our Al-Farabi Boulevard instead?” one user offered. “We’ve got all the fanciest cars!”
I never thought a site about Almaty’s overlooked architecture would be so divisive. Yet the project, Walking Almaty, has revealed a certain fault line in the attitudes of local denizens.
For those born after the fall of the USSR in 1991, the Soviet stuff I celebrated was something of an embarrassment and anything old acted as a painful, rusty reminder. Al Farabi Boulevard at the southern end of town, with its Prada store and glass and steel feel, is the aspirational icon of this crowd.
Meanwhile, old-timers who still call the city by its Russian name of Alma-Ata converse through online forums. For them, the past is something lived, not something to be shirked, and as facades of faux-granite rise, they feel as disrespected as the haters I witnessed on Instagram.
One youthful user recently posted online a picture of a rebuilt cottage, its wooden fretwork ripped off, its new paint job unsubtle. The old-timers responded in chorus. “This is sick.”
By Dennis Keen, an Almaty-based American blogger and writer
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 219, published on Feb. 18 2015)
>>Is Kazakhstan shifting away from pro-Uzbekistan stance?>>
FEB. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Astana has been a reliable supporter for Tashkent on some major regional issues over the past 20 years, backing Uzbek President Islam Karimov’s opposition to prospective Tajik and Kyrgyz hydropower dams and also deporting Uzbek asylum seekers.
But the Kazakh authorities may have recently started sending signals that suggest they want changes in Uzbekistan. For instance, Rapil Joshybayev, the Kazakh first deputy foreign minister told a group of Tajik officials in Dushanbe that Kazakhstan may have had a change of heart over the hydropower issue (Feb. 4).
“Kazakhstan is ready to consider the Tajik party’s proposals on fulfilling contracts as part of the hydropower stations construction projects,” he said.
This statement may signify a change of approach by Kazakhstan over a major piece of regional politics — the expansion of hydropower.
In short the upstream countries, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan, want to build hydropower dams. The downstream countries, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan, want to stop this.
These are tricky times for Uzbekistan. Next month, Uzbekistan will also have to deal with a presidential election.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)
>>Clashes breakout after Tajik is accused of murder>>
FEB. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A group of Kazakhs attacked Tajik homes in a village near Kazakhstan’s border with Uzbekistan.
The police had earlier accused Navmidin Narmetov, a Tajik, of killing Bakytzhan Artykov, a Kazakh in the village of Bostandyk, 150km south of the regional capital, Shymkent.
Friends and family members of the victim converged on the Tajiks’ homes, burning cars, attacking the Tajik-language school and shouting: “Go home!”.
A state of emergency was briefly proclaimed by the ministry of interior. In the southern region, internet connections and cell phone reception were frozen for days after the attacks. Online news reports, both in Russian and in English were censored across the country.
The alleged murderer was caught in Uzbekistan.
Inter-ethnic harmony is a particularly sensitive issue in Kazakhstan. President Nursultan Nazarbayev has often spoken on the topic and in 2011, rioting oil workers in west Kazakhstan clashed with police. Several people died triggering the most serious crisis of Mr Nazarbayev’s presidency.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)
FEB. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan will buy several Russian-made Sukhoi SU-30SM fighter jets to rebuild its Soviet-era air force, media reported quoting the commander of the Kazakh Air Force Major General Nurlan Ormanbetov. The order highlights Kazakhstan close links with Russia and also its determination to re-build its military.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)
>>Rouble devaluation makes Russian goods cheap>>
FEB. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Local authorities in Kazakhstan said they are worried about cheap goods from Russia flooding its northern markets. The rouble has halved in value, making goods from Russia cheap for Kazakhstanis.
Duisenbai Turganov, vice-governor of the Pavlodar province, directed his concerns to Kazakh deputy PM, Bakhytzhan Sagintayev.
He said Russian goods flooding the Kazakh market could be classified as a dumping practice.
“Prices of Russian competitors are 30-60% lower than Kazakh suppliers can offer. This has a negative impact on the activities of the local industrial enterprises,” the tengrinews.kz website quoted him as saying.
The row piles more pressure on to the Eurasian Economic Union which has become tainted by commercial wars among the members. Belarus and Armenia are also members.
And we’ve seen this issue before. Since December, Kazakhs are crossing the border to buy cheap goods in Russia. Although quantities may be risible for Moscow, on the other side of the fence, buying Russian goods makes a difference for Kazakhs.
From cars, to poultry, to petroleum products, the large-scale entry of cheap goods from the north into Kazakhstan creates an imbalance in the Kazakh economy and puts local factories under stress.
The governor in Pavlodar may be talking peanuts to Russia, but these are vital components of the socio-economic makeup of the northern regions of Kazakhstan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)
FEB. 10 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Despite an antagonistic stand-off between Washington and the Kremlin over the civil war in Ukraine, media reported that Kazakhstan has organised a military exercise with the US. The US has held military exercises with Kazakhstan for several years. Kazakhstan is also a close ally of Russia.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)
FEB. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s net gold and foreign currency reserves increased to $28.2b in January from $28b in December and $24b from a year earlier, highlighting its ability to fight downward pressure on its tenge currency. Kazakhs worry about another devaluation.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)
FEB. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Italian oil service company Saipem has won a $1.8b contract to replace leaky pipes at the Kashagan oil field in the Kazakh sector of the Caspian Sea, media reported. It said the new pipes would be in place by the end of 2016, allowing oil to flow from Kashagan by the start of 2017.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)
FEB. 9 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A handful of residents in Almaty staged another protest against the falling value of the Kazakh tenge. According to a Radio Free Europe report the protesters said they had taken out mortgages when $1 equalled 107 tenge. Now $1 equalled 186 tenge. Protests are rare in Kazakhstan but pressure on the tenge has angered people.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 218, published on Feb. 11 2015)