MARCH 30/31 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Looking for an investment boost, Kyrgyzstan’s new president, Almazbek Atambayev, visited Baku for the first time in 21 years for a talks with Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev. Mr Atambayev has already been successful in pursuing Azerbaijani investment. Azerbaijan has pledged to build a $250m refinery in Kyrgyzstan.
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(News report from Issue No. 082, published on April 6 2012)
MARCH 29 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Less than two years after fighting between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks killed at least 400 people in south Kyrgyzstan, ethnic tension is rising again, the International Crisis Group think-tank said in a report. According to the report, southern Kyrgyz leaders have been pursuing anti-Uzbek policies.
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(News report from Issue No. 082, published on April 6 2012)
MARCH 27 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Toronto-based Centerra Gold cut gold output at its Kumtor mine in Kyrgyzstan by a third, threatening the stability of the Kyrgyz economy. Kumtor accounts for around 12% of Kyrgyzstan’s annual income. Centerra Gold, 33% owned by the Kyrgyz government, blamed the output cut on excessive ice in the mine.
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(News report from Issue No. 081, published on March 30 2012)
MARCH 5 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Melis Myrzakmatov, a firebrand Kyrgyz nationalist, won re-election as mayor of Osh in nationwide municipal elections in Kyrgyzstan. Many see him as a powerful rival to the central government in Bishkek. Mr Myrzakmatov was mayor of Osh during ethnic violence in 2010 that killed at least 400 people.
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(News report from Issue No. 080, published on March 8 2012)
MARCH 6 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The younger brother of deposed Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev has escaped from prison by walking out of a hospital in Bishkek, authorities said. Akhmet Bakiyev, who was imprisoned in Aug. 2011 for 7 years for commanding a group of armed men and stirring ethnic hatred, had been receiving treatment for pneumonia.
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(News report from Issue No. 080, published on March 8 2012)
FEB. 25 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Underlining friendly ties between Russia and Kyrgyzstan, Russian President Dmitri Medvedev said Russia would pay a $15m debt to Kyrgyzstan for the lease of its military bases. Mr Medvedev also said he would consider how to help Kyrgyzstan repay the estimated $500m debt it owes Russia.
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(News report from Issue No. 079, published on March 1 2012)
FEB. 23 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan has developed a decent business in hosting foreign air bases.
It is the only country in the world where both the US and Russia operate separate air bases giving Kyrgyzstan strategic importance beyond its size.
But not only do the US and Russian air bases lend status, they also generate cash.
In 2009 Kyrgyzstan re-negotiated a deal with the US to allow it to keep its base at the Manas airport outside Bishkek open until the end of 2014, when NATO starts to withdraw from Afghanistan, for $60m/year.
Now it looks as if Kyrgyzstan’s new president, Almazbek Atambayev, wants to reconsider the contract with Russia. As well as the airbase at Kant, Russia also operates a torpedo testing site on Lake Issyk-Kul and two other earthquake measuring and communications centres.
In September 2010, Russia and Kyrgyzstan agreed a $4.5m/year rent for these bases but on Feb. 17 Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that Mr Atambayev might now have other ideas.
During a speech to students in Osh, Mr Atambayev reportedly said the $4.5m from Russia only covered the rent of the Kant air base and that Moscow still owed cash for the other bases.
He may have been playing to the crowd but he also knows that the military bases are one of the few tools he has to generate extra income.
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(News report from Issue No. 78, published on Feb. 23 2012)
FEB. 10 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyz security forces said they had captured a member of a radical Islamic group linked to attacks in Bishkek in 2010 and a shootout with police in Jan. 2011. Media reported that when security officers arrested the man on the outskirts of Bishkek they also found a rifle and explosives.
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(News report from Issue No. 77, published on Feb. 16 2012)
FEB. 9 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – France’s defence minister, Gerard Longuet, told the magazine L’Orient Le-Jour that NATO’s logistics route through Central Asia is too expensive. NATO has earmarked the route, dubbed the Northern Distribution Network, as the best way of withdrawing soldiers and kit in 2014 from Afghanistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 77, published on Feb. 16 2012)
FEB. 6 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 1,400 workers at the Kumtor gold mine, which makes up around 12% of Kyrgyzstan’s national income, started a strike over new tax payments which they say their employer should pay on their behalf. Centerra Gold, the Canadian company which owns and operates the mine, said the strike was illegal.
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(News report from Issue No. 76, published on Feb. 9 2012)