Tag Archives: Kyrgyzstan

Kyrgyz security forces want to question anti-corruption journalists

DEC. 2 (The Bulletin) — Kyrgyzstan’s National Security Committee said that it would call in for questioning journalists who worked on a corruption report produced by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, the Berlin-based Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project and Bishkek-based news website Kloop. The report highlighted organised crime and corruption at the top levels of the Kyrgyz customs service.
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

Kyrgyz court jails two former PMs

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DEC. 6 (The Bulletin) — A court in Kyrgyzstan sentenced two former PMs to jail for corruption in a case that some analysts have said highlights how political vendettas are played out in the region. Sapar Iskarov, PM in 2017-18, and Jantoro Satybaldiyev were given 15 years and 7-1/2 years in prison for corruption linked to the $400m refit of a power station near Bishkek by a Chinese company.
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

Kyrgyz feminist exhibition organiser quits after death threats

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BISHKEK/Dec. 3 (The Bulletin) –Mira Dzhangaracheva, the director of Kyrgyzstan’s National Museum of Fine Arts, said that she had resigned her position after receiving deaths threats links to a feminist exhibition.

The exhibition, called Feminale, which has been shown in the museum since Nov. 28, has shocked most ordinary Kyrgyz. Dedicated to the 17 Kyrgyz migrant women workers who died in a fire in 2016 at the Moscow printing house they were working in, the exhibition’s organisers said that their mission was to promote women’s rights in Kyrgyzstan’s staunchly macho and conservative society.

Exhibits included a boxing punch bag shaped like the torso of a woman, a Danish performance artist wandering around a room naked and various references to nudity.

But while the show has earned praise from Bishkek’s younger, liberal-minded millennials, it has also generated criticism. Delegations of Kyrgyz elders have visited government offices to demand that the show is closed. Employees of the museum and artists, including Ms Dzhangaracheva, said that they have received death threats.

The government stepped in and removed some of the more provocative exhibits, the ones it said showed “nude women in a temple of art”.

Now, Ms Dzhangaracheva , the National Fine Art Museum director, has said that it is safer for her to quit rather than try to see off the conservatives who she said have stymied artistic expression in Kyrgyzstan.

“Over the past five days there have been so many threats to me personally and my employees and to the organisers of this Feminale that I worry about our people,” she told the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website in an interview.

Women, gay and minorities’ rights in Kyrgyzstan have been worsening according to activists.
Human Rights Watch said of the government’s decision to block part of the Feminale exhibition: “Rather than limiting public access to thought-provoking art, the Kyrgyz government should protect its creators against threats of violence and support freedom of expression, including about women’s rights.”
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

Kumtor expects to produce more gold this year than anticipated

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BISHKEK/Nov. 30 (The Bulletin) –Kumtor, Kyrgyzstan’s biggest gold mine and the cornerstone of its economy, will produce more gold this year than expected.

In a statement, the Kyrgyz government said that Kumtor, which is owned by Canada’s Centerra Gold, would produce 18.2 tonnes of gold, beating an initial target of 16.6-17.6 tonnes.

This is critical for Kyrgyzstan which relies on Kumtor to generate around 10% of its annual GDP.

Separately, Centerra Gold, said that two employees were missing after a landslide near the open-pit mine. Mining had been halted to search for the two workers.
Kyrgyzstan owns a 26.6% stake in Centerra Gold.
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

Kyrgyzstan eases visa regulations with Iran

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DEC. 4 (The Bulletin) — Highlighting improved bilateral relations, Kyrgyzstan and Iran eased visa regulations between the two countries and also resumed direct flights. Iran has been keen to develop relations with Central Asian countries. For the Kyrgyz government, improving links with Iran is an opportunity to try to entice Iranians looking to holiday in a cooler climate to travel to Kyrgyzstan.
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— This story was first published in issue 431 of the weekly Bulletin on Dec. 9 2019

Comment: The CSTO has always lacked relevance

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Other than spreading Russian influence, the CSTO is a military alliance lacking a clear mission. Opportunities to impose itself and carve out an identity have been missed, writes James Kilner.

NOV. 29 (The Bulletin) — For a military organisation that can pull together regular summits which include Russian President Vladimir Putin, the CSTO is oddly anaemic. On Nov. 28, the heads of states of the six members of the CSTO met in Bishkek for a summit that was only vaguely relevant.

This is a military organisation led by Russia which has dodged intervention on its doorstep and inside its borders. It currently doesn’t even have a permanent Secretary-General to lead it.

The CSTO, or to give it its full name the Collective Security Treaty Organisation, emerged from the ashes of the Soviet Union as something of a Warsaw Pact light, very light. It was supposed to impose a military pact over the rump of the Soviet Union that wasn’t looking West and to NATO. But its origins and ambitions have always been confused.

A CIS military grouping was formed after the Tashkent Pact of 1992, with Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Belarus, and Georgia as members. When it came to be renewed in 1999, though, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan declined. This meant that when the CSTO was finally created in 2002 there were also only six members and it was dominated by Russia.

Recent inaction by the CSTO has also undermined its cause. The CSTO stood by in 2010 when fighting between ethnic Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks in Osh, southern Kyrgyzstan, killed several hundred people and forced thousands of ethnic Uzbek to flee. Often too, as in Ukraine and Georgia, Russia is a belligerent, or backs a belligerent, in a conflict, forcing CSTO peacekeeping missions off the table.

Even when there is cooperation within the CSTO, it is couched as bilateral. Armenia has sent 100 deminers and doctors to support Russian rebuilding in Syria but other countries declined and the deal is considered to be between Russia and Armenia directly.

Of course, it doesn’t help that since the start of this year, the CSTO has been without a Secretary-General. Yuri Khachaturov, the Armenian former CSTO Secretary-General, is currently standing trial for “subverting the constitution” in Yerevan in 2008 when police killed at least 14 protesters. Members of the CSTO haven’t been able to agree on a replacement.

The CSTO holds value to Russia for helping it to spread political influence and to sell its military products, but as a militarily operational group it is largely irrelevant.

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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.

CSTO leaders meet in Bishkek for summit

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NOV. 28 (The Bulletin) — Leaders of member states of the Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO) signed 15 documents focused on enhancing cooperation at their annual summit in Bishkek, media reported quoting the Kyrgyz Presidential Administration. The CSTO was set up shortly after the break-up of the Soviet Union in 1991. It has been accused of being weak and failing to intervene in regional conflicts, most notably in fighting between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in Osh in 2010.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.

Wyndam to open new hotels across the region

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NOV. 27 (The Bulletin) — Wyndam Hotels, one of the world’s biggest hotel franchises, plans to open new sites in Georgia, Uzbekistan, Armenia and Kyrgyzstan over the next couple of years, media reported. In total, Wyndam wants to add 35 hotels with 5,700 bedrooms to its portfolio with Georgia being the focus of this growth. It said that it will build seven new hotels with 1,300 bedrooms in Georgia.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.

Russia gives military kit to Kyrgyzstan

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NOV. 27 (The Bulletin) — Russia has donated military kit worth a reported $12m to Kyrgyzstan, Janes defence and military news website reported. The donation included two Mi-8MT helicopter and two mobile radar kits. Although China has built up strong relations in Central Asia, Russia is still the main military ally.
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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.

Kyrgyz corruption report triggers protests

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BISHKEK/NOV. 26 — Hundreds of people protested in Bishkek against corruption after a report published by activists accused senior customs officials of taking bribes worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

Chanting “power to the people”, demonstrators waved a cartoon of former customs service chief Raimbek Matraimov who, the authors of the report said, was at the head of the corruption scheme. The demonstrators want him prosecuted and the resignation of the heads of the National Security Committee and the anti-corruption service.

Street level politics and demonstrations are a real force in Kyrgyzstan where revolutions in 2005 and 2010 overthrew governments considered corrupt.

In response to the protests, Kyrgyz President Sooronbai Jeenbekov convened a meeting of the National Security Committee. His administration also put out a statement distancing him from any foul play.

But corruption is endemic in Kyrgyzstan, as the report, entitled: “Plunder and patronage in the heart of Central Asia”, described.

“Evidence tells the story of how a vast underground cargo empire run by the Abdukadyrs, a secretive Uyghur clan, systematically funnelled massive bribes to Kyrgyzstan’s customs service,” it said. “It also implicates Raimbek Matraimov, a former top customs official widely seen as so powerful that he is essentially untouchable.”

Central to the report was the evidence of Aierken Saimaiti, an ethnic Uyghur. He was shot dead on Nov. 10 in Istanbul. Before his murder, Saimaiti had told journalists that he had laundered $700m out of Kyrgyzstan.

On Nov. 29, security officials in Bishkek arrested Erkin Sopokov, the former Kyrgyz envoy in Istanbul. His car was found near where Saimaiti had been shot dead.

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— This story was first published in issue 430 of the weekly Bulletin.