APRIL 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A monitor from the Feb. 18 presidential election in Armenia said she is being blackmailed for alleging vote fraud against supporters of president Serzh Sarksyan, media reported. Narine Esmaeli said she received phone calls telling her to drop the allegations or intimate photos of her would be released.
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(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)
APRIL 3 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Documents obtained by the whistle-blower website the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists linked Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev and his family to several offshore bank accounts in the British Virgin Islands. Opposition in Azerbaijan accuse Mr Aliyev of corruption. He, and his family, declined to comment.
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(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)
APRIL 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — For aspiring diplomats, Tbilisi is considered a bit of a back-water. Relations between Kazakhstan and Georgia are stable and uncontroversial. Georgia is important to Kazakhstan mainly because some of its energy makes its way to Europe through the Georgian pipeline or railway network.
What it isn’t is glamorous or high-profile and that’s precisely why the appointment of Yermukhamet Yertysbayev, President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s adviser for the last five years, as Kazakh ambassador to Georgia attracted so much attention.
The feeling was that Mr Yertysbayev had been demoted gently, perhaps he’d made one too many unguarded remarks or perhaps Mr Nazarbayev just wanted to freshen up his team.
Mr Yertysbayev had been Mr Nazarbayev’s adviser since May 2008. As well as advising him behind the scenes, Mr Yertysbayev performed an important role by floating potential policy moves to gauge public reaction.
He aired the potential of Timur Kulibayev, Mr Nazarbayev’s son-in-law, becoming president and also updated the media on former British PM Tony Blair’s operations in Kazakhstan.
The last five year stint as Mr Nazarbayev’s adviser had been Mr Yertysbayev’s third in the role. He may well yet return.
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(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)
APRIL 5 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Ukraine snubbed Tajikistan by releasing, rather than extraditing, former PM Abdulmalik Abdullojonov who is wanted by the authorities in Dushanbe for an alleged assassination attempt on Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon in 1997. Ukrainian authorities detained Mr Abdullojonov, who has been granted refugee status by the US, in February.
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(News report from Issue No. 130, published on April 5 2013)
MARCH 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Kyrgyzstan sentenced Maxim Bakiyev, the son of ousted president Kurmanbek Bakiyev, to 29 years in jail in absentia for signing off millions of dollars in illegal deals. Bakiyev fled to London after a coup in Kyrgyzstan in 2010. He is currently on bail, facing a series of fraud charges in the US.
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(News report from Issue No. 129, published on March 29 2013)
MARCH 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – It doesn’t take long these days, for rumours and speculation to start flying around on the health of a Central Asian leader if they disappear from the public’s gaze for a few days.
Earlier this month Kazakh president Nurtulan Nazarbayev popped up in Israel on a surprise trip. He was photographed with Israeli president Shimon Peres but that didn’t quell speculation that the real reason he was in Israel was to make use of the country’s hospitals.
Now 75-year-old Uzbek president Islam Karimov is at the centre of speculation over his health. Unsubstantiated rumours have lingered for years that Mr Karimov is unwell but when he, unusually, disappeared from sight for a few days in mid-March the intensity of the leadership gossip increased. Opposition sources said that Mr Karimov had suffered a heart-attack shortly after being filmed dancing at a Norouz celebration on March 19.
On March 27, the presidential website did publish a video of Mr Karimov meeting with Kazakh foreign minister Yerlan Idrissov. His apparent good health was confirmed by Kazakh officials later who said they witnessed the meeting.
But, crucially, Mr Karimov hasn’t actually appeared in public. Until he does, the speculation will continue.
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(News report from Issue No. 129, published on March 29 2013)
MARCH 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – A Bishkek court jailed three nationalist opposition MPs for between 12 and 18 months for calling for a revolution and trying to break into a Kyrgyz government office in October last year. The politicians — Kamchibek Tashiyev, Sadyr Zhaparov and Talant Mamytov — wanted the Kumtor gold mine to be nationalised.
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(News report from Issue No. 129, published on March 29 2013)
MARCH 29 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Raffi Hovannisian, the runner-up in a presidential election in Armenia in February, said he would end a hunger strike on April 1, media reported. He had started the hunger strike to protest against what he described as a rigged vote. Mr Hovannisian promised to continue street protests.
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(News report from Issue No. 129, published on March 29 2013)
MARCH 27 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Azerbaijani officials opened an investigation into the US vote monitoring group the National Democratic Institute (NDI) for distributing grants without the correct registration, media reported. The authorities in Azerbaijan have been cracking down on media and rights groups ahead of an election next year.
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(News report from Issue No. 129, published on March 29 2013)
MARCH 21 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s parliament voted to cut the president’s authority, the latest move in the power struggle between supporters of President Mikheil Saakashvili and PM Bidzina Ivanishvili. The amendment scraps the president’s right to sack a cabinet. The pro-Western Mr Saakashvili finishes his second term and final term as president in October.
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(News report from Issue No. 128, published on March 22 2013)