Tag Archives: politics

Kazakh President’s nephew quits Nur Otan

DEC. 19 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kairat Satybaldy, the 45-year-old nephew of Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, quit as secretary of the Nur Otan party, one of the most high profile and influential political jobs in the country. Nur Otan is Mr Nazarbayev’s political party. Mr Satybaldy had been secretary of Nur Otan for six years. Some analysts have said he is a potential successor to Mr Nazarbayev.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)

Iran welcome for opposition angers Tajikistan

DEC. 29 2015, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin)– Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei met with Muhiddin Kabiri, the exiled head of Tajikistan’s now-banned main opposition party, in Tehran, immediately drawing threats from Tajik officials that the meeting would damage bilateral relations.

The major show of support from Iran for Mr Kabiri, who is wanted by police in Tajikistan to face various terrorism charges, and his Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT) is a poke in the eye for Dushanbe, officially a secular country.

Tajikistan and Iran have traditionally close relations, sharing many similar cultural, religious and ethnic identifiers. Iran has also been a major sponsor of essential hydropower infrastructure in Tajikistan.

The Tajik foreign ministry sent a note to the Iranian Embassy in Dushanbe which said: “Such an attitude to the enemies of the state and the people of Tajikistan can have a negative impact on the friendly relations between Tajikistan and Iran.”

In September, Tajikistan banned the IRPT, once Tajikistan’s main opposition party, and accused its members of supporting radical Islam and terrorism.

Mr Kabiri, who fled into exile, and his supporters have accused the Tajik government of crushing dissent.

In Dushanbe, an analyst who preferred to remain anonymous told The Conway Bulletin that Mr Kabiri was taking a gamble by appearing in Tehran.

“For Kabiri and the IRPT, after having no support at all from the West, Iran was the last chance to stay in the political arena,” he said.

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(News report from Issue No. 262, published on Jan. 8 2016)

Former Kazakh PM sent to prison for corruption

DEC. 11 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Karaganda sentenced former Kazakh PM Serik Akhmetov to 10 years in prison on corruption charges, completing the downfall of a former high-flying member of Kaza- khstan’s inner clique of elite.

Akhmetov was sentenced alongside other 20 senior officials, among them the former governor of the Karaganda region, Baurzhan Abishev, and former mayor of the
city, Meiram Smagulov.

They were all charged with abuse of office and embezzlement.

The trial effectively disbands the former group of Karaganda elite and acts as a warning for other local elites in Kazakhstan.

Akhmetov, 57, had served as PM from September 2012 to April 2014, when he was removed and replaced by his predecessor Karim Massimov.

He was then appointed defence minister, but was sacked in October 2014, just one month before prosecutors filed corruption charges against him.

Now, in his latest ignominy, he will going to jail for taking a $2.4m bribe.

Days before his sentence, Akhmetov publicly admitted his errors and asked President Nursultan

Nazarbayev for forgiveness.
“I sincerely apologise to Nursultan Abishevich for not repaying his trust and causing him distress,” said Akhmetov. The court displayed little clemency towards Akhmetov, instead pre- ferring to hand him a heavy sentence and use him as an example to others.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)

Tajikistan targets IRPT families

DEC. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police have detained the family of Muhiddin Kabiri, the fugitive leader of the Islamic Renaissance Party of Tajikistan (IRPT), media reported. The IRPT had been Tajikistan’s main opposition group until it was outlawed. Most of its leaders have been arrested. Mr Kabiri, though, is on the run.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 261, published on Dec. 20 2015)

Turkmen President criticises head of Central Bank

DEC. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) -Turkmenistan’s President Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov reprimanded the head of the Central Bank and the head of the Commodity Exchange Agency at a government meeting, the Trend news agency reported.

Although details of the dressing- down were thin, as expected from Turkmenistan, it does indicate that, perhaps, Mr Berdymukhamedov is feeling the economic strain.

There have been a number of reports coming out of Turkmenistan over the year that show the country’s economy is under pressure from a drop in energy prices, a recession in Russia and a fall in value of currencies across Emerging Markets. At the start of the year the Central Bank devalued the manat currency by 19%. Last month, dissident websites reported that currency controls had been imposed.

And now this.

Trend reported that Mr Berdymukhamedov had told Central Bank chief Merdan Annadurdiyev and the head of the commodities exchange, Amandurdi Ishanov, that their work had been substandard. The report didn’t give any specific examples.

Mr Berdymukhamedov is keen on giving ministers a public dressing down. These reprimands generally betray some of his thinking on the country’s development. By focusing on the Central Bank and the commodities exchange, Mr Berdymukhamedov is showing his frustration with the economy.

With the distinct lack of accurate economic data flowing out of Turkmenistan, this is important.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

Turkmenistan bans USD

DEC. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – State workers in Turkmenistan have been told they are not allowed to buy foreign currencies, the dissident website chrono-tm.org reported. The website, which is based in Europe but has good sources in Turkmenistan, said that the country is running out of US dollars. Its reports have been proved accurate previously although this report could not be independently verified.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

Armenians vote to hand more power to the PM

DEC. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenians voted overwhelmingly in a constitutional referendum to shift power from the president to the prime minister, a move supporters of the change said was a natural modernising step but its critics decried as a thinly veiled power-grab by President Serzh Sargsyan.

The Central Election Commission said 63% of people had voted in favour of the referendum, a far bigger margin of victory than polls had predicted in the run up to the vote.

But Armenia’s opposition said that the vote had been rigged and urged an investigation, a move supported by the US embassy.

Hundreds of people gathered in Yerevan’s central square after the referendum to protest again the result.

Turnout at the vote, though, was reportedly low, despite the high-profile nature of the reforms. Some analysts said the low turnout betrayed people’s belief that the changes had been brought in to improve the position of the ruling elite rather than update the political system.

Lilit Gevorgyan, an analyst at IHS, said that shifting to a parliamentary system was dressed up as a progressive move but was in fact a way for the political and economic elite to shore up their positions.

“It’s an innovative way of solving the succession issue,” she said.

The new rules are set to be introduced at a parliamentary election in March 2017. Mr Sargsyan is set to leave the presidency in 2018.

As well as handing a slimmed down parliament of 101 members elected via proportional representation more power, the new constitution builds in a run-off system which will ensure a majority for a single party.

This last issue was also contentious.

The reformists argued that this system avoided weak minority governments. Its opponents said it bordered on a form of totalitarian rule.

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(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

“I can’t lie” says Kazakh TV reporter

DEC. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The London correspondent of Kazakhstan’s state-owned Khabar TV station and its 24.kz website, Bela Kudaibergenova, resigned saying: “I just can’t lie any more”.

On a Facebook post, Ms Kudaibergenova, who has been in London for six years, said that she decided to quit when she was ordered to spin a dowdy event organised by the Kazakh embassy as a great success which showed the love that the British people have for Kazakhstan.

“That was it. I felt that enough was enough, and I could not do it anymore,” Ms Kudaibergenova told RFE/RL in an interview.

Free speech activists have previously criticised Kazakhstan for crack- downs and for using state-run media to sugar coat reality.

After Ms Kudaibergenova’s resignation, twitter and social media lit up with messages of support.

The reaction of the official media in Kazakhstan, though, was less ecstatic. The Khabar news channel said that a planned move from London had triggered her resignation.

“We never lie,” said Arman Seitmamyut, head of of Khabar TV.

“I personally demand that all our journalists double check all their work and the accuracy of everything.”

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 260, published on Dec. 11 2015)

Kazakh Central Bank skips meeting

DEC. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s Central Bank cancelled its monthly monetary policy meeting for the second consecutive month, disappointing markets which were looking for guidance on future policy. The Central Bank said that money markets were too unstable for it to announce policy. Critics said it had lost control of the tenge.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)

Georgia strips Saakashvili of his citizenship

DEC. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgian president Giorgi Margvelashvili signed a decree stripping Mikheil Saakashvili of his Georgian citizenship.

When he was in power between 2003 and 2013 Mr Saakashvili painted himself as proud Georgian patriot and it is likely that losing his Georgian citizenship will hurt and even humiliate him.

Under Georgian laws, though, dual citizenship is illegal.

In May this year, Mr Saakashvili took Ukrainian citizenship, allowing him to take up an offer by Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko to be governor in Odessa.

This meant that, formally, the government had to strip Mr Saakashvili of his Georgian citizenship.

“Based on the law of Georgian citizenship, President Giorgi Margvelashvili signed a decree terminating Mikheil Saakashvili’s citizenship due to his acquisition of a foreign country’s nationality,” the Georgian presidential press service said.

The AFP news agency quoted Mr Saakashvili as telling Georgia’s Rus- tavi-2 TV station that he was angry.

“They can take away my passport, but they can’t do anything with my love for my Motherland,” he said.

Although the constitution bans Georgians from taking dual nationality it doesn’t force foreigners taking Georgian citizenship to renounce their original nationality.

Georgia’s prosecutor-general also wants to arrest Mr Saakashvili and charge him with various crimes. Mr Saakashvili has always said the charges are politically motivated. Several of Mr Saakashvili’s former government colleagues and government officials have been arrested.

The European Union and the West have also warned Georgia’s government not to politicise the criminal system.

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(News report from Issue No. 259, published on Dec. 4 2015)