JULY 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — At a meeting in Tashkent, Uzbek President Islam Karimov and China’s foreign minister Wang Yi pledged to boost cooperation between the two countries. China has been steadily increasing its economic and diplomatic interests in Uzbekistan. Chinese President Xi Jinping is due to visit Uzbekistan in September.
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(News report from Issue No. 144, published on July 22 2013)
JULY 22 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — It’s not over yet but Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili has suffered a sharp fall in authority over the past nine months.
Lauded as the leader of the 2003 Rose Revolution that swept away the remains of the old Soviet power structures in Georgia, he has ceded authority across the country since his political party, United National Movement (UNM) lost a parliamentary election in October 2012.
The victors of the parliamentary election, Georgia’s richest man, Bidzina Ivanishvili, and his opposition coalition, have gradually taken increased control of local councils as UNM deputies switched sides.
Police have also detained dozens of UNM deputies and business leaders on corruption charges.
Now, Mr Ivanishvili’s supporters have wrenched Tbilisi City Hall from the UNM. On July 20, Georgian media reported that members of the city council had voted out the Tbilisi city council leader after his support gradually drained away in the preceding weeks.
Coming before a presidential election scheduled for Oct. 27, the loss of Tbilisi City Hall will be another blow to Mr Saakashvili’s authority. For foreign business in Georgia, the next few months will be increasingly turbulent.
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(News report from Issue No. 144, published on July 22 2013)
JULY 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Italy ruled that the extradition to Kazakhstan of the wife of former Kazakh banker Mukhtar Ablyazov, Alma Shalabayeva, from Rome in May was illegal. Questions have been asked about the relationship between Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev and Italian officials who sanctioned the extradition.
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(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JULY 6 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan celebrated the 15th anniversary of its capital city, Astana. Astana Day, as it has been dubbed, coincides with celebrations for President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s birthday. His critics say that he is creating a cult of personality and that Astana has been built in his image.
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(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JULY 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan state energy company SOCAR and Russian pipeline monopoly Transneft are negotiating on re-starting oil shipments along the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline, media reported.
This is probably more significant for Azerbaijan-Russia relations than to energy supplies.
With construction finished in 1997, the Baku- Novorossiysk pipeline was one of the early post-Soviet Union pipelines. It runs 1,330km from Baku to the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. From there the oil is shipped on to Europe. Volumes along the route, though, have been declining as Azerbaijan has worked to open up alternative routes to Europe, including the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan pipeline.
Last year, the Baku-Novorossiysk oil pipeline pumped only about 8% of Azerbaijan’s oil to its export markets.
In May 2013, throughput along the Baku-Novorossiysk pipeline stopped altogether. Both sides were losing money on the deal. There wasn’t enough volume for the Russians and the price for its oil was too low for the Azerbaijanis.
It may be economically more efficient for the pipeline to stay idle but politically it needs to re-open.
Russia has approved a major arms deal with Azerbaijan, executives from Rosneft, the Russian state energy company, have visited Baku and senior Russian politicians have talked about a strategic deal between the two countries.
Re-starting an oil pipeline between the two countries may fit the pattern of increasingly close cooperation.
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(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JULY 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, quit her role as Uzbekistan’s envoy to the UN in Geneva. Ms Karimova, who has been at the centre of business bribery allegations, said she wanted to concentrate on Uzbekistan, triggering speculation over her succession ambitions.
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(News report from Issue No. 143, published on July 15 2013)
JULY 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan’s opposition coalition announced that well-known screenwriter Rustam Ibragimbekov would be its candidate in October’s presidential election. Mr Ibragimbekov is best known for co-writing the script for the 1994 Russian film “Burnt by the sun” which won an Oscar for best foreign film.
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(News report from Issue No. 142, published on July 8 2013)
JULY 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgian officials criticised a trip by French actor Gerard Depardieu to Georgia’s break-away region of Abkhazia as both ignorant and inflammatory for Georgian-Russian relations. Russia gave Mr Depardieu citizenship earlier this year after he complained about high taxes in France.
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(News report from Issue No. 142, published on July 8 2013)
JULY 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Georgia will hold its presidential election on Oct. 31. Confusion had reigned, briefly, though over the date. Only three hours after a spokesman for Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili said the election would be held on Oct. 27, the head of the presidential administration announced the date of the vote as Oct. 31.
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(News report from Issue No. 142, published on July 8 2013)
JULY 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — British PM David Cameron completed a two-day trip to Kazakhstan. This was the first trip to Kazakhstan by a serving British PM and concluded with reportedly $1b worth of deals between the two countries. Human rights groups said that Mr Cameron should have done more to press concerns on Kazakhstan’s rights record.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 142, published on July 8 2013)