FEB. 23 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A new subsoil law in Kazakhstan, which Western investors hope will reduce costs and improve access to geological information, will be presented to parliament within the next few months, Aset Magauov, the deputy energy minister said. Kazakhstan has been developing a new subsoil law for the past 18 months.
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(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)
FEB. 22 2016, ALMATY (The Conway Bulletin) — Police arrested Seitkazy Matayev, one of Kazakhstan’s most prominent journalists and a former press secretary of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, as well as his son Aset for stealing government money and for tax evasion.
The arrests are a an escalation of the pressure that journalists are under in Kazakhstan. They appeared to show that no journalist, whatever their reputation and links, is beyond the reach of the authorities during a crackdown which analysts have linked to a sharp downturn in the economy and a parliamentary election next month.
Mr Matayev served as a spokesman for Nazarbayev in 1991-3, is head of the journalists’ union and runs the National Press Club in Almaty, used as a discussion platform for opposition, journalists, activists, politicians and businessmen.
He was also the founder and owner of the KazTAG news agency of which his son was CEO. The authorities said that they had stolen a combined 300m tenge ($861,000), from state organisations.
Journalists told The Conway Bulletin’s Almaty correspondent that Mr Matayev’s arrest signalled that the authorities wanted to increase the pressure on journalists further.
Zhanna Baitelova, a freelance journalist, said it was no surprise that the authorities were pressuring Kazakhstan’s opposition media.
“But when they detain the head of Journalists’ Union of Kazakhstan, an organisation that is per se neutral, it is shocking,” she said. “The situation with press freedom in Kazakhstan is critical, especially in the light of recent events.”
Police later released Asset Matayev. Seitkazy Matayev was placed under house arrest.
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(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)
FEB. 19 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in eastern Uzbekistan sentenced five men to jail for between 5-1/2 and 12 years for various charges linked to religious extremism, media reported. Uzbek officials have said that the threat from radical extremists has intensified although Western human rights groups have said that Uzbek officials are more interested in suppressing dissent than fighting terrorism.
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(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)
FEB. 24 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijan’s Supreme Court upheld a conviction of tax evasion and abuse of authority against human rights lawyer Intiqam Aliyev who was arrested in August 2014 and sentenced in August 2015 to 7-1/2 years in prison. Critics of Azerbaijan have said that the authorities have been suppressing any form of opposition to President Ilham Aliyev and his cohort of elites.
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(News report from Issue No. 269, published on Feb. 26 2016)
FEB. 17 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan’s government published a list of 89 state-owned companies that it said will sell at least 15% of their shares to foreign investors this year. Last December, the government approved a law that aimed to attract foreign investors. The long list of companies open for investment includes cotton industry giant O’zbekyengilsanoat, telecoms operator Uzbektelekom and Uzbekistan’s postal service.
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(News report from Issue No. 268, published on Feb. 19 2016)
FEB. 18 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Court in Tajikistan sentenced 13 men to between 10 and 25 years in jail for allegedly hoisting an IS flag over a building in the provincial town of Nurek, media reported. The authorities in Tajikistan have sentenced similar numbers of men on similar charges previously. It has said that radical Islam is growing in the region but human rights groups have accused the Tajik government of simply wanting to clamp down on dissenters.
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(News report from Issue No. 268, published on Feb. 19 2016)
FEB. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Canadian miner Stans Energy had filed a $220m law suit at the International Court of Arbitration for what it said was the illegal confiscation of rights it held to mine the Kutessay-2 rare earth elements (REE) field and Kalesay beryllium field in Kyrgyzstan. The Kyrgyz authorities have previously said that it confiscated Stans Energy’s rights over the fields in 2011 because it had broken its contract to develop the sites.
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(News report from Issue No. 268, published on Feb. 19 2016)
FEB. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliament unexpectedly dropped a bill that would have made insulting religion a crime. The bill’s sponsor, an MP for the ruling Georgian Dream coalition, withdrew the bill after it ran into a barrage of controversy for effectively clamping down on free speech. The suspicion was that Georgian Dream was using the bill to try and shore up support amongst supporters of Georgia’s Orthodox Church ahead of a parliamentary election later this year.
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(News report from Issue No. 268, published on Feb. 19 2016)
FEB. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s finance minister, Nodar Khaduri, said 400m lari ($160m) will be cut from the 2016 budget if parliament agrees to a new corporation tax that the government has said will stimulate economic growth.
The Georgian Dream coalition has staked a large amount of political capital on its proposed reforms which will only tax profit that is not re- invested. Government officials have said the idea is to try to encourage more economic activity. All profit is currently taxed.
“These reforms, both income tax and VAT, will reduce this year’s targeted revenues by about 400m lari,” Mr Khaduri, told media.
The government is also tinkering with VAT so that the import of so- called fix assets is VAT free.
$400m represents roughly 5% of the government’s expected total revenue for 2016.
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(News report from Issue No. 268, published on Feb. 19 2016)
FEB. 10 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) – Giorgi Tatishvili, a Georgian gay rights activist, has filed a lawsuit challenging a law in Georgia which states that marriage can only be between a man and a woman, the Eurasianet website reported. Georgia is a staunchly conservative country and the Orthodox Church plays a major role in society. Mr Tatishvili’s lawsuit provides a potential litmus test for Georgian society over whether it wants to relax its strong traditional viewpoints.
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(News report from Issue No. 267, published on Feb. 12 2016)