Tag Archives: politics

An Azeri go-between emerges for Trump-Putin

JAN. 13 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — A dossier produced by a former British spy detailing how Russian president Vladimir Putin had developed links with incoming US president Donald Trump has shocked the Washington political establishment.

The report, published online by the Buzzfeed news website on Jan. 10, also detailed how Russia has gathered enough evidence of Trump’s alleged bribery and sexual escapades that it was now able to blackmail him.

Trump has called the dossier a pack of lies but what is undeniable is the assertion in the dossier that Araz Agalarov, an ethnic Azerbaijani billionaire with strong links to both the Kremlin and to Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev, plays a key link role with Trump.

One memo sent by the British spy to his Washington client quoted sources in St Petersburg saying that Trump had visited the city, taken part in sex parties and paid bribes for real estate deals. The memo didn’t offer much in the way of direct evidence to corroborate these allegations, and it has to be repeated that Trump has denied everything.

On Agalarov, though, it did offer this aside: “The two St Petersburg figures cited believe an Azeri business figure Araz Agalarov (with offices in Baku and London) had been closely involved with Trump in Russia and would know most of the details of what the Republican candidate had got up to there.”

Agalarov has also been credited with bringing Trump’s Miss Universe contest to Moscow in 2013 and agreeing to build a Trump Tower.

In short, Agalarov has emerged as a key figure in the Trump-Putin story. Worth an estimated $1.3b, Agalarov splits his time between Moscow, London and Baku. His main business interest is the Russia-based Crocus, which started organising and hosting exhibitions in post-Soviet Moscow, before moving into real estate and owning shopping malls.

In many ways, the 62-year-old Agalarov is a good foil for Trump in the former Soviet Union. He can match Trump on bravado and business interests but cuts a more sophisticated figure.

He is friends with Putin and is also close to Azerbaijan’s president Aliyev. His musician son, Emin, was married to Aliyev’s daughter Leyla until their divorce in 2015. Agalarov and Aliyev, though, share two twin grandsons through the marriage.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Saakashvili’s United National Movement party splits up in Georgia

TBILISI, JAN. 12 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Three months after a humiliating parliamentary election defeat the once mighty United National Movement party (UNM) appears to be in its final death throes.

Putting an end to months of speculation, 21 MPs from the UNM said that they were breaking away to form a new party.

Gigi Ugulava, the MPs’ unofficial leader, said the UNM was too heavily tarnished by its links to former president Mikheil Saakahsvili.

“One person is responsible for dismantling the party, the person, who established the party,” media quoted him as saying, referring to Mr Saakashvili.

Mr Ugulava is an ex-mayor of Tbilisi. He was only released from prison a week earlier, where he had been serving a sentence for bribe-taking.

At a parliamentary election, UNM won just 27 seats of 150 seats, down from 65 seats in the 2012 election. Its great rivals, the Georgian Dream won 115 seats, up from 85.

Mr Saakashvili, Georgian president from 2004 until 2013 who counted George W. Bush as a friend, has been living in exile since leaving office in 2013. He had been hoping that a UNM victory at the election would allow him to return to Georgia.

He responded to the breakup of the party from his base in Ukraine in his usual bombastic fashion.

“Everyone saw the amount of defectors today and everyone will see the strength and the amount of the United National Movement at its January 20 congress,” he said on Facebook.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakh President hints at changing constitution

ALMATY, JAN. 11 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev hinted that he would change the country’s constitution to redistribute power from the presidential office to parliament and other executives bodies.

No details were given of Mr Nazarbayev’s plans but it does appear to be an attempt to smooth the transition of power. Mr Nazarbayev has not named a successor and analysts have been left wondering just how he is going to manage the transition.

Since independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, Mr Nazarbayev has amassed great power, tinkering with the constitution several times.

He may be aiming to reduce the power of the president to set up a system which distributes influence between roles more evenly.

This is a pattern set by some of Kazakhstan’s regional neighbours. Kyrgyzstan has boosted the power of the PM’s office, as has Georgia in the South Caucasus.

One of the favourites to succeed Mr Nazarbayev is his eldest daughter Dariga.

Other high-ranking Kazakhs touted as potential future leaders include Imangali Tasmagambetov, a deputy prime minister and Timur Kulibayev, Mr Nazarbayev’s son-in- law and the husband of Dinara Nazarbayeva.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Kazakh police arrest ex-economy minister

ALMATY, JAN. 10 2017 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Kazakhstan arrested the former economy minister, Kuandyk Bishimbayev, for alleged links to a corruption scheme at the country’s state-owned Baiterek holding company.

Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev sacked Mr Bishimbayev, 36, as economy minister on Dec. 28.

He had only been in the job since May. for the previous three years he had been chairman of Baiterek holding company which administers the state’s shareholdings in various companies.

Several senior executives at Baiterek have been arrested over the past few weeks on bribe-taking allegations. The main focus is Baiterek Development, the holding company’s real estate unit.

Kazakhstan has been hit by several high-profile corruption scandals in the past year.

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(News report from Issue No. 312, published on Jan. 13 2017)

Former head of Kazakhstan’s presidential administration sacked as ambassador to Croatia

Kazakh President unveils new monument

DEC. 16 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev unveiled a new monument in Astana to mark the 25th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union. He ignored the fifth anniversary of the shooting dead of at least 15 people by police during riots in the western city of Zhanaozen.

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(News report from Issue No. 310, published on Dec. 23 2016)

Paris court frees Kazakh President’s enemy Ablyazov from jail

DEC. 9-13 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Days after a court in Paris freed former Kazakh banker Mukhtar Ablyazov from jail, the self-styled opposition figure promised to reignite his campaign to topple Kazakhstan’s long-running leader Nursultan Nazarbayev.

The Paris court had overturned an order to extradite Mr Ablyazov to Russia because of concerns that he would be tortured and then handed over to Kazakhstan. Mr Nazarbayev has viewed Mr Ablyazov as his number one enemy and wanted to see him tried in a Kazakh court for plotting a coup.

Mr Ablyazov, though, walked out of prison in Paris, three years after his arrest in the south of France. In an interview with the AFP news agency, he was in combative mood.

“My main aim is to bring democratic change to Kazakhstan and that Nazarbayev’s regime falls,” he said.

For Mr Nazarbayev this means a resumption of the well-funded campaign to see Mr Ablyazov in prison. The thought of the former energy minister, turned-billionaire-banker living freely in Paris will anger and irritate him.

In a subsequent Liberation interview, Mr Ablyazov was photographed looking gaunt and thin. As well as promising to continue to fund opponents of Mr Nazarbayev, he also said that he had sponsored a revolution in Kyrgyzstan in 2005.

“It was important for me in order to launch a democratic process in one of the former Soviet republics and they to be able to carry out proper reforms, which would become a model for Kazakhstan,” he said.

Kyrgyzstan’s 2005 revolution overthrew Askar Akayev. He was replaced by Kurmanbek Bakiyev who was also overthrown in a revolution in 2010.

For Kazakhstan’s disparate opposition, Mr Ablyazov is a complicated and at times Faustian character. A member of the Kazakh elite, he fled to Moscow and London after the collapse of BTA Bank, where he was chairman. The Bank had billions of dollars of debt which were exposed during the Global Financial Crisis of 2008/9. The government bought the bank, along with other smaller banks, to protect savers.

In the meantime, Mr Ablyazov set himself up as an opposition leader in a leafy area of north London.

The Kazakh government accused Mr Ablyazov of stealing billions of dollars from BTA Bank and prosecuted him through the courts in London. During one of the court sessions he absconded and went on the run in the south of France.

Mr Ablyazov, though, was unrepentant.

“Vladimir Putin is rebuilding a Soviet Union and Kazakhstan is its main ally,” he said, explaining his motivations for trying to overthrow Mr Nazarbayev.

The Kazakh Prosecutor-General’s office has said it will continue to prosecute Mr Ablyazov for the alleged theft of $5b, abuse of office, plotting a coup and various other crimes.

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(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

Kazakh President orders pension rise

DEC. 15 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — In a populist show of tenderness towards ordinary Kazakhs, President Nursultan Nazarbayev ordered the state pension to be increased by 20% next year. His apparent show of magnanimity coincided with the country’s 25th anniversary of independence from the Soviet Union. Pensions are paid in tenge, which has lost half its value since 2014.

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(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

Kazakh President’s son-in-law family want re-trial

DEC. 12 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — The family of Rakhat Aliyev, Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev’s former son-in-law who was found dead in an Austrian prison cell in February 2015, called for an investigation into his death to be reopened. At a press conference the family presented a German expert who said that he thought Aliyev had been murdered. An Austrian investigation ruled that Aliyev had killed himself. Aliyev had been married to Dariga Nazarbayeva, Pres. Nazarbayev’s eldest daughter. He had fallen out with his father-in-law in 2007.

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(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)

Kyrgyzstan passes referendum that extends powers of PM and bans same-sex marriage

BISHKEK, DEC. 11 2016 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kyrgyz voted overwhelmingly in a referendum to change the country’s constitution and shift power from the president’s office to the PM.

The referendum was controversial because opposition groups said that it was designed to empower current president Almazbek Atambayev who has to stand down next year. They accused him of eyeing up a strengthened PM’s office as his next role.

Under the changes the PM will be able to sack cabinet ministers and heads of local administrative regions and the president will no longer chair the Kyrgyz defence council. The referendum also banned same-sex marriage, angering gay rights groups.

Around 80% of the vote was cast in favour of the referendum proposals. Vote turnout was around 42% and one senior Western diplomat told The Conway Bulletin that the referendum only gained enough momentum because officials had cajoled people living in new villages that have sprung up on the outskirts of Bishkek, the capital, into voting for the proposals.

Even so, there was plenty of grumbling too about foul play and vote stuffing.

Nazira, 24, an independent observer said: “Some political parties’ representatives were standing at the polling station entrance, talking to voters and offering them up to 3,000 som ($30) for their vote.”

This is the third referendum in Central Asia this year.

Tajiks voted to extend the length of presidential terms and in Turkmenistan they scrapped a limit on the number of terms a president can remain in power. Across the Caspian Sea, in Azerbaijan a referendum was used to lengthen a presidential term.

In an election run alongside the referendum, people in Bishkek voted to retain the Social Democrats as their city government, although with a reduced number of seats.

The Social Democrats, the party of President Atambayev, won 13 seats in the Bishkek city election, just ahead of Ata Jurt with 12 seats. The other 20 seats were split between Onuguu-Progress, Mekenim Kyrgyzstan and Kyrgyzstan parties.

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(News report from Issue No. 309, published on Dec. 16 2016)