DEC. 14 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – After two years of arguments, the energy companies (BG, Eni, Chevron and Lukoil) developing the Karachaganak gas project in Kazakhstan agreed a deal with the government to allow it a buy a stake in what is one of the country’s biggest energy developments. Essentially, Kazakhstan will pay $1b for a 10% stake.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 70, published on Dec. 22 2011)
DEC. 18 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Riots that have killed at least 16 people in western Kazakhstan are a major challenge to the Kazakh elite.
It was, to put it simply, the biggest display of public discontent with the country’s leaders since independence in 1991.
The authorities have since imposed a state of emergency in the town of Zhanaozen, the centre of the fighting, and flooded the region with military. Protests have now taken root in Aktau, a major nearby oil centre, although there are so far no reports of violence.
Their strategy is simple. They aim to stop protests spreading to cities outside the western region of Mangistau. If they can’t, then the outlook for 2012 is decidedly bumpy.
The authorities’ reaction to the riots was insightful. It felt Soviet. They simply crushed the former oil workers who had occupied the main square in Zhanaozen since mid-May.
The statements that followed were dripping in Soviet language. According to President Nursultan Nazarbayev, the riots were started by selfish bandits and hooligans and the police had fired on them only when they feared for their lives. Reading it felt like 1986.
The bottom line is that in two consecutive civil disorder scenarios, police fired live rounds at protesters and killed several people.
Kazakhstan has prided itself on being an island of stability in volatile post-Soviet Central Asia. That image is looking distinctly battered.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 70, published on Dec. 22 2011)
DEC. 16 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Unprecedented riots broke out in Zhanaozan, west Kazakhstan, on Independence Day. At least 15 people died in fighting between ex-oil workers and police, who opened fire on protesters. The next day rioting spread to another town where police also shot at protesters killing one and injuring 11.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 70, published on Dec. 22 2011)
DEC. 10 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Underlining a trend towards the virtual deification of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Kazakhstan’s parliament declared Dec. 1 to be a new public holiday. The 1st day in December will now be known as the Day of the First President. Mr Nazarbayev has been president since the 1991 breakup of the Soviet Union.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 69, published on Dec. 14 2011)
DEC. 7 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Underlining his unilateral principles, Uzbek president Islam Karimov used a TV speech to warn against integration in the former Soviet Union. Commentators interpreted the speech as a snub to Russian PM Vladimir Putin’s proposal of a Eurasian Union. Kazakhstan backs the idea of a Eurasian Union.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 69, published on Dec. 14 2011)
DEC. 9 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan and the foreign energy companies in the Karachaganak gas project (BG Group, Eni, Chevron and Lukoil) are close to resolving their long-running dispute, sources told Reuters. The sources said Kazakhstan would pay $1b for a 10% stake in exchange for dropping outstanding tax claims.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 69, published on Dec. 14 2011)
DEC. 3 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Elite Kazakh police battled suspected Islamic militants in a village outside Almaty. In the gun battle two police and five militants died. The battle was the latest violence linked to Islamic militants this year in Kazakhstan and in Almaty police have started to detain and interrogate men with links to Islam.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 68, published on Dec. 8 2011)
DEC. 2 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – An underground metro opened in Almaty, 23 years after construction work started. Almaty hit a population of 1m people in the mid-1980s triggering the Soviet authorities to start building a metro system. This stopped in 1991 when the USSR collapsed but Kazakhstan has since spent $1.1b completing the metro.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 68, published on Dec. 8 2011)
DEC. 6 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s relatively small and illiquid stock exchange (KASE) is looking for a tie-up with either the London Stock Exchange (LSE) or the two Russian stock exchanges, the head of KASE, Kadyrzhan Damitov, told the FT. Kazakhstan plans to sell stock in state-owned businesses in 2012.
ENDS
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(News report from Issue No. 68, published on Dec. 8 2011)
DEC. 5 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A disputed parliamentary election in Russia on Dec. 4 triggered unprecedented anti-government street demonstrations in Russian cities, protests which will have worried leaders in Central Asia and the South Caucasus.
The people of Central Asia and the South Caucasus have strong historical, business, family and political ties with Russia and what happens there matters.
Politics in Kazakhstan is similarly aligned to Russia and the country is confronting growing pains. President Nursultan Nazarbayev also has to deal with a parliamentary election on Jan. 15.
Although Mr Nazarbayev’s position is far more secure than his Russian counterparts’ he faces lingering issues over his succession policy and commitment to genuine democracy. The compliant Kazakh media has steered away from covering the Russia protests in detail but Mr Nazarbayev certainly wouldn’t want them to linger.
In Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan the media is even more tightly controlled and the impact of the anti-government protests in Moscow will be softer but, again, if they are prolonged they will start to worry their leaders.
In the South Caucasus, Azerbaijan is most prone to an impact from street demonstrations in Russia. Its police force stamped out anti-government protests during the first half of the year and demonstrations in Russia could embolden protesters again.
It is premature to talk of a Slavic Spring in Russia but there is an air of change and this attitude could start to drip into other former Soviet states.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 68, published on Dec. 8 2011)