MAY 16 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh copper producer Kazakhmys has won regulatory approval for a secondary listing in Hong Kong in June, media reported. Global companies are choosing to list in Hong Kong to improve their links to China. Kazakhmys is already listed in London.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 40, published on May 17 2011)
MAY 17 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – A suicide bomber blew himself up in the office of the security services in Aktobe, a city near a major gas field in northwest Kazakhstan. The bomb injured at least two other people. Islamic militant groups are the main suspects.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 40, published on May 17 2011)
MAY 17 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – The physical damage from the suicide bomb attack on a security forces office in Aktobe, northwest Kazakhstan, on May 17 2011 was relatively light. The bomber killed himself, injured at least two other people and caused minor damage to a building.
Psychologically, though, for Kazakhstan the attack was devastating.
It was perhaps the first suicide bomb attack in Kazakhstan and despite the authorities’ quick denial, it may well be the work of militant Islamists.
Earlier this year sources in the Kazakh security services told The Conway Bulletin that fighting growing Islamic radicalism in the west of the country was their main priority.
The security sources said it was difficult to stop the internet videos and literature which were radicalising disenchanted young men and they said it was probably just a matter of time before there was an attack.
Adding to their problems, in September 2010 a senior Islamic cleric linked to al Qaeda had
also issued a fatwa against Kazakhstan’s police force.
But the biggest driver of radical Islam in western Kazakhstan comes from the North Caucasus, where Russia has fought militants for years. Dagestan is a short trip across the Caspian Sea from Kazakhstan and in recent months Russian forces have killed Kazakhs fighting alongside rebels in Makhachkala, the scruffy, teeming Dagestani capital.
For much of the past two decades Kazakhstan has watched attacks by Islamic militants against its more turbulent neighbours and been able to project itself as the safe, stable Central Asian country. That may now have changed.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 40, published on May 17 2011)
MAY 6 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – In a case that highlighted the porous border controls in Central Asia, Kazakh PM Karim Massimov said he had sacked the head of Kazakhstan’s customs agency after security forces broke up a smuggling ring which had bribed officials to operate freely across a border with China for five years.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 39, published on May 9 2011)
MAY 9 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh environmentalist said 12-15 dead seals have washed up on the shores of the Caspian Sea over the last week, media reported. In the past 10 years environmentalists have blamed offshore energy developments and overfishing for hundreds of seal deaths. The Kazakh government, though, has blamed viruses.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 39, published on May 9 2011)
MAY 1 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Five fairly strong earthquakes shook Almaty, the financial capital of Kazakhstan, in close succession. The US Geological Survey said the strongest earthquake measured 5.4 on the Richter scale. It was recorded around 76km north east of Almaty. No damage or deaths were reported.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 38, published on May 2 2011)
APRIL 25 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) members — China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan — pledged greater cooperation at a meeting in Shanghai. Russian news agency RIA Novosti described the meeting as the first summit for the SCO military chiefs. Some analysts have said the SCO could act as a counterbalance to NATO.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 37, published on April 25 2011)
APRIL 20 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Russian security forces in Dagestan said they killed an Islamic militant from Kazakhstan, Russian news agency RIA Novosti reported. Over the last two years, security forces have said that seven Kazakhs have died fighting with Islamic radicals in the North Caucasus fuelling fears of a rise in Islamic radicalism in western Kazakhstan.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 37, published on April 25 2011)
APRIL 25 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – In contrast to the cool reception he received when he visited the European Union in Brussels in January, China laid on smiles and a guard of honour for Uzbek President Islam Karimov’s state visit on April 19/20.
Mr Karimov was in Beijing to meet Chinese President Hu Jintao and to sign deals worth billions of dollars including an agreement to double the amount of gas Uzbekistan sells to China. The Uzbek state news website uza.uz said the deals were worth $5b and that Chinese banks had also agreed to lend $1.5b to 4 Uzbek banks for joint-ventures.
The numbers underscore just how much power and impact China can buy in Central Asia. Mr Hu hosted a similar visit to Beijing by Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev in February.
Over the last few years China has steadily bought up assets across the region, subverting the influence of both Russia and the West.
For the Central Asia states, China allure is not just its wealth, its proximity and its hunger for oil and gas. For now, at least, China is also less troublesome to deal with.
Former colonial power Russia has quarrelled with Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan over the price of gas and the West has previously condemned human rights abuses, such as the shooting in 2005 of around 500 people at a protest in eastern Uzbekistan. China, instead, talks of jointly defeating terrorism, is welcoming and lays on the charm.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 37, published on April 25 2011)
APRIL 15/16 2011 (The Conway Bulletin) – Indian PM Manmohan Singh visited Kazakhstan and signed a number of deals. The deals included Indian state energy company ONGC Videsh buying a 25% stake in the Satpayev exploration block, one of the biggest in the Caspian Sea, and for Kazakhstan to supply India with 2,100 tonnes of uranium by 2014.
ENDS
Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 36, published on April 18 2011)