Tag Archives: politics

Kyrgyzstan appoints new PM

AUG. 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s parliament confirmed Sapar Isakov, previously President Almazbek Atambayev’s chief of staff, as the new PM (Aug. 25). His predecessor, Sooronbai Jeenbekov, resigned to run for president in an election set for Oct. 15. Mr Atambayev is barred by the Kyrgyz constitution from running for a second term in office. He has backed Mr Jeenbekov.

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(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)

Azerbaijan detains head of last independent news agency

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AUG. 25 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Turan news agency, described as the last independent news outlet in Azerbaijan, said it would close on Sept 1 after its director and owner was detained on tax evasion charges.

Human rights groups said that the charges levelled at Turan’s director, Mehman Aliyev, were false and should be dropped. He was detained and officially charged with tax evasion on Aug. 24.

“Who at this point can seriously believe that this is not a politically motivated case to silence a strong, independent voice in Azerbaijan’s deserted independent media landscape,” Rachel Denber, deputy Europe and Central Asia director at Human Rights Watch.

Turan and Aliyev, no relation to Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev, are accused of owing around $21,500 in unpaid taxes from 2014/16.

Azerbaijan has one of the worst records for independent media in the world. It has clashed with the European Union and the US, who accuse the Azerbaijani government of a systematic campaign to subvert the media, over the past few years.

And the US released a strongly worded statement describing the arrest of Aliyev, considered to be one of the post-Soviet pioneers of journalism in Azerbaijan, as an “Assault on media freedom”.

“These actions by the government of Azerbaijan to curtail freedom of press and to further restrict freedom of expression are the latest in a negative trend that includes the government’s May decision to block access to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and other independent media websites,” the statement said.

“We urge the government of Azerbaijan to immediately release Mehman Aliyev, and all those incarcerated for exercising their fundamental freedoms, in accordance with its international obligations and OSCE commitments.”

The Azerbaijani government has not commented.

There are dozens of Azerbaijani journalists in jail for various reasons including various financial crimes, drug smuggling and gun possession.

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(News report from Issue No. 341, published on Aug. 27 2017)

Uzbekistan says to scrap exit visas

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TASHKENT, AUG. 8 2017 (The Bulletin) — Uzbekistan will lift exit-visa requirements, media reported by quoting officials, potentially making it easier for millions of Uzbeks to travel abroad to find work.

Exit-visas are a hated hangover from the Soviet Union and, even if they were not difficult to obtain for most ordinary Uzbeks, were a reminder of the authoritarian nature of the regime. Scrapping them is another indication of the liberal reforms ushered in by Shavkat Mirziyoyev, president since September 2016 when Islam Karimov died. He has also promised to change foreign currency controls and also to encourage more foreign investment, as well as relax social controls, such as laws stipulating when bars and restaurants have to close.

Uzbekistan, like the rest of Central Asia, is reliant on remittances sent back from Uzbeks working abroad to bolster its economy. Most of these remittance payments are sent back to Uzbekistan from Russia.

Uzbekistan’s foreign ministry said a presidential decree on relaxing exit visas had already been drafted and government agencies were considering various pieces of legislation.

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(News report from Issue No. 339, published on Aug. 13 2017)

Berdy postures as Turkmen special forces assassin

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AUG. 2 2017 (The Bulletin) — Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov has been mocked for starring in a video in which he postures, firing a rifle and throwing daggers at targets, to adoring, gawping Turkmen commandos.

Keen to burnish his public image, Mr Berdymukhamedov is fond of releasing videos which show off his apparently unlimited skills.

A few days earlier a video showed him, wearing a white tracksuit and baseball cap, singing and playing the keyboard. At the start of the year, a video showed him leading government officials in a gym workout.

The common thread in each video is that Mr Berdymukhamedov, who is micromanaging his way through an economic downturn, plays the role of the kindly father- figure passing on his skills and knowledge to less able subjects.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on Aug. 5 2017)

Kyrgyzstan imprisons opposition leader

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AUG. 2 2017 (The Bulletin) — A court in Bishkek gave opposition leader Sadyr Japarov, known for his outspoken fiery speeches, an 11-1/2 year prison sentence for taking a former regional governor hostage during a rally in October 2013. Zaparov is influential on the streets of Bishkek, as shown earlier this year when his arrest triggered a series of tense protests. Kyrgyzstan is voting in a presidential election in October. Japarov had said that he wanted to take part in the election. A second high-profile potential presidential candidate, Omurbek Tekebayev, is in detention waiting to be tried for various financial crimes.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on Aug. 5 2017)

Czech investors in Kyrgyzstan’s hydro projects may be a false company

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BISHKEK, JULY 17 2017 (The Bulletin) — The Czech company that Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev was lauding for agreeing a multi-million-dollar deal to build new hydropower stations may not even exist.

Less than a week after a triumphant Mr Atambayev was quoted in media talking up Liglass, a company based in a provincial Czech town, as the new backers of a hydropower project that Russia backed out of in 2015, it has emerged that even his own diplomats were warning him that the company only appears to exist on paper.

Kyrgyzstan has staked much of its future economic potential on developing its hydropower. The deal was considered important because

Russia’s Rushydro pulled out of a $700m agreement to develop the hydropower stations in 2015.

Liglass had, according to Mr Atambayev, promised to pay $37m for a 50% stake in the Upper Naryn HPP, which includes two major hydropower projects, and to build and operate a string of smaller hydropower stations.

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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

Ukraine strips former Georgian president Saakashvili of citizenship

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TBILISI, JULY 26 2017 (The Bulletin) — Ukraine stripped former Georgian leader Mikheil Saakashvili of his citizenship, leaving the man once feted by US President George W. Bush as a beacon of democracy in the former Soviet Union effectively stateless.

Mr Saakashvili, 49, may now be forced to seek asylum in the United States, where he is thought to have friends, and where he fled to in 2013 after leaving the Georgian Presidential Palace at the end of his second and final term in office.

Ukrainian leader Petro Poroshenko, who returned from a trip to Georgia earlier in July, had once considered Mr Saakashvili as an ally against Russia and in May 2015 gave him a Ukrainian passport and made him the governor of the Odessa region. But the quarrelsome Mr Saakashvili fell out with his Ukrainian hosts and resigned in November last year to set up a new political party.

Ukrainian migration was coy on why Saakashvili had had his passport taken from him.

“According to the constitution of Ukraine, the President of Ukraine takes decisions on losses of Ukrainian citizenship based on the conclusions of the citizenship commission,” it said in a statement.

Mr Saakashvili shot to power in Georgia in 2003 through a peaceful revolution that ushered in his pro- Western government. In 2008, though, he lost credibility with Western allies and with domestic voters after he triggered a war with Russia.

In a Facebook message, Mr Saakashvili said that he was currently outside Ukraine and that he would fight attempts to block him from returning to Ukraine.

“Now there is an attempt under way to force me to become a refugee,” he said. “This will not happen!”

Since 2012, his United National Movement party that once dominated Georgian politics has been humiliated, losing two parliamentary elections heavily, a presidential election and most municipality councils. The Georgian authorities want to try Mr Saakashvili for various financial crimes, allegations he has denied.

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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

Kyrgyz President promises smooth power transfer

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JULY 24 2017 (The Bulletin) — In a press conference lasting 3-1/2 hours, Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev once again pledged his support in a presidential election set for October for PM Sooronbay Dzheenbekov and said that whoever won, there would be a peaceful transfer or power. Mr Atambayev is banned from standing in the election after the end of his single 7-year term. The elections are considered a test of Kyrgyzstan’s democracy.

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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

Azerbaijan boycotts Yandex Taxi and Uber JV

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TBILISI, JULY 17 2017 (The Bulletin) — NewCo, a joint-venture between ride sharing companies Uber and Yandex Taxi in the former Soviet Union, ran into trouble within four days of its unveiling when Azerbaijan said it would boycott it because of its Armenian CEO.

The statement from the Baku Transport Agency is a reminder of how politics and business are closely entwined in Central Asia and the South Caucasus.

“For this reason, after the unification of Yandex Taxi and Uber companies, if this structure is to be headed by an Armenian citizen or a person of Armenian origin, drivers of Baku will be called on to cease communication with this company,” a spokesman for the agency was quoted by Armenian media as saying. NewCo has “ appointed Armenian Tigran Khudaverdiyan, head of Yandex Taxi, as its CEO.

Azerbaijan and Armenia are still officially at war over Nagorno- Karabakh. A shaky UN-negotiated ceasefire has maintained a peace since 1994 but analysts have been warning that tension is rising with sporadic outbursts of violence and shelling intensifying.

Four days earlier Uber and Yandex Taxi agreed to merge their operations in Russia, Belarus, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan. Uber owns a 36.6% stake in the company and Yandex Taxi owns a 59.3% stake with the final 4.1% company,” being owned by management.

In a statement on the merger, Mr Khudaverdiyan, still formerly head of Yandex Taxi until the merger is completed by the end of 2017, said on July 13 that the new company currently services 35m rides every month, is growing at 400% per year and has a paper value of $3.725b.

“This combination greatly enhances Yandex’s ability to offer better quality service to our riders and drivers, to quickly expand our services to new regions, and to build a sustainable business,” he said.

Yandex Taxi and Uber dominate the ride-hailing market in the former Soviet Union. Their nearest rival, Gett, holds roughly 15% of the market.

Market analysts welcomed the ” move. Roman Luzgin, an analyst for investment website Seeking Alpha, said: “As the NewCo will account for more than 70% of the ride-on- demand market, the advantage of the monopolistic position will appear once the deal is executed.”

NewsCo will keep both brands operational. On the New York Stock Exchange shares in Yandex, best known as the Russian-language version of Google, rose to $31 from $27 after the news.

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(News report from Issue No. 337, published on July 27 2017)

Council of elders in Turkmenistan set for October

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JULY 11 2017 (The Bulletin) — Turkmen media said that President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov had called for a Council of Elders to convene on Oct. 9. The Council of Elders consists of 600 men over the age of 70 from across Turkmenistan’s five regions. It is officially an advisory body for the President but in effect is used to rubberstamp his decisions, often major government matters. The President decides on when to call a Council of Elders, although it usually takes place every year.

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(News report from Issue No. 336, published on July 16 2017)