Tag Archives: Kazakhstan

The sturgeon disappears from the Caspian

APRIL 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Sturgeon, fish native to the Caspian Sea that produce roe which is better known as caviar, are under threat.

According to Kazakhstan’s deputy Prosecutor-General, Andrei Kravchenko, there will be no sturgeon in the Caspian Sea with four years.

In the last three years, the number of sturgeon in the Caspian Sea has fallen from 3 million to 1.3 million, the Tengrinews website quoted him as saying.

“At a similar rate,” he said. “Sturgeon will be on the brink of extinction in four to five years.”

He blamed energy companies, poachers and official corruption for the drop in numbers.

Caviar is valuable for the Caspian region. Prices in Europe for the delicacy hit thousands of euro for a kilogram.

A few days before Mr Kravchenko’s statement, deputy foreign ministers of the Caspian Sea littoral countries met in Tehran for one of their regular meetings on protecting fish stocks. It’s a talking-shop. The next meeting is scheduled for Baku in September.

Perhaps Mr Kravchenko’s comments were aimed at the deputy foreign ministers.

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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)

Sturgeon warning in Kazakhstan

APRIL 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Poaching will kill off sturgeon in the Caspian Sea within four years, media quoted the Kazakh deputy Prosecutor-General, Andrei Kravchenko, as saying. Sturgeon roe is more commonly known as caviar and is a lucrative commodity.

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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)

Islamic radicalism from North Caucasus spreads in Central Asia

ALMATY/Kazakhstan, APRIL 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Tsarnaev brothers, blamed for bombing the Boston marathon earlier this month, were ethnic Chechens, brought up in Kyrgyzstan who apparently learnt about radical Islam in Dagestan.

This link, between radical Islamic ideas in Russia’s North Caucasus and Central Asia, can’t be ignored. Domestic security in Central Asia and NATO’s main route for withdrawing its equipment from Afghanistan are potentially vulnerable.

But, although bomb attacks blamed on radical Islamists, increased in 2010 and 2011 in Kazakhstan, several Almaty-based analysts said the impact of radical Islamic ideology from the North Caucasus on Central Asia should not be overstated.

“Today there is no direct connection reported between the insurgency in North Caucasus and terrorist acts taking place in Kazakhstan,” Zhulduz Baizakov, a Kazakhstan-based analyst, said.

“The ideology, methods and purposes are different.”

Instead, analysts said that the radicalising influence from the Arabian peninsula and Afghanistan was more important than from the North Caucasus.

But the North Caucasus’ brand of radical Islam is accessible. It’s also worrying the Kazakh security forces. They are concerned with both the trickle of young Kazakh men fighting with rebels in Dagestan and the emergence of Islamic literature from the North Caucasus in Kazakhstan.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)

The Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and Turkey

APRIL 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Turkey signed up to become a so-called dialogue partner of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), a group led by China and Russia that includes Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.

Belarus and Sri Lanka already hold the same status with the SCO but Turkey is a NATO member and that makes its partnership more important. Analysts have often described the SCO as a potential Chinese and Russian-led military rival to NATO.

This analysis of the SCO, though, is too simplistic. The SCO is more than just a security group. It is also a financing organisation and a forum for inter-governmental conversation and debate.

Turkey, too, has deep economic, historical, cultural and linguistic ties with Central Asia, the focus of the SCO’s activities. Turkish senior governments ministers often visit the Central Asia capitals and it is only natural that Turkey should look to become a member in the region’s main security grouping.

Turkey’s interest in the SCO and its promotion as a dialogue partner should be welcomed by all, including NATO.

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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)

A fighter jet crashes in Kazakhstan

APRIL 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Kazakh air force MiG-31 fighter jet crashed on a training mission in central Kazakhstan killing the pilot and injuring the navigator. The Kazakh military grounded all MiGs after the accident while an investigation takes place.

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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)

Pension age increase backlash in Kazakhstan

APRIL 26 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A man protesting against a proposed increase in the retirement age for women hurled two eggs at the Kazakh minister for labour, Serik Abdenov. The Kazakh government wants to raise the retirement age for women to 63 from 58.

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(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)

Kazakhstan to have more police-women

APRIL 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s prosecutor-general wants to change the face of policing in the country. By 2020, media quoted deputy Prosecutor-General Zhakyp Assanov as saying, women will make up roughly 30% of the Kazakh police force, up from today’s figure of about 3%.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 133, published on April 29 2013)

European Parliament criticise Kazakhstan over human rights

APRIL 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The European Parliament adopted a resolution criticising Kazakhstan for not respecting political, media and religious freedoms. Its statement called for the authorities to release the leader of the banned opposition Alga! Party, Vladimir Kozlov, from prison. He was convicted last year for inciting unrest.

(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)

Islamic radicals in Central Asia

APRIL 22 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Snow covered the Almaty street, reflecting the light pouring from the restaurant’s windows.

Inside, vodka flowed, dancers twirled and laughter boomed.

This was a typical Chechen wedding party in Kazakhstan on a freezing evening in February.

The women wore their hair loose; the men strutted and joked as they tried to impress.

Across Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan, a proud, flamboyant Chechen diaspora is acutely visible.

Worried that the unruly Chechens would rebel while the Red Army was fighting the Nazis, Soviet dictator Josef Stalin deported roughly 500,000 people from the North Caucasus to Central Asia in 1944. In 1957, four years after Stalin’s death, the Soviet authorities eased movement restrictions. Many Chechens opted to return home. Many others, though, stayed.

But despite the suspected Boston bombers’ Chechen ethnicity and upbringing in Kyrgyzstan, these communities do not hold particularly radical Islamic beliefs.

Radical Islam is a danger to Central Asia but the risk from Chechens already living within the region is low. The main danger lies in the flow of radical beliefs from places like Makhachkala — the teeming capital of Dagestan and apparently where the suspected Boston bombers lived after leaving Kyrgyzstan — to poor, vulnerable ethnic Kazakhs and Kyrgyz.

(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)

Ex-BTA director detained in Kazakhstan

APRIL 18 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh police detained Yerlan Tatishev, a former director of BTA Bank which the government bailed out in 2009, on embezzlement charges, media reported. BTA Bank’s former chairman, Mukhtar Ablyazov, is currently on the run having been found guilty of perjury by a British court.

(News report from Issue No. 132, published on April 22 2013)