Tag Archives: politics

Kyrgyz prison chief hangs

NOV. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The warden in charge of the jail from which nine prisoners escaped last month has been found hanged in his cell, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Imankul Teltaev had been in pre-trial detention waiting for this trial on charges linked to the mass escape.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Tajik president to be given title of “Leader of the Nation”

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajik President Emomali Rakhmon is about to add another title to his growing list of names. Already called “His Excellency”, he will now add the moniker “Leader of the Nation”.

A group of deputies of the lower chamber of parliament have submitted a draft law proposing that Mr Rakhmon take this title.

One of the proposers of the bill, Abdurahim Kholikzoda told local media that the draft has been prepared because of a groundswell of support from ordinary Tajiks who want to honour their president and everything he has achieved.

“This is a tribute to the merits of the outstanding son of the Tajik people, President Emomali Rakhmon, and for his services to the country and the people of the country,” media quoted Mr Kholikzoda as saying.

Mr Kholikzoda has a track record of lavishly praising Mr Rakhmon. Once head of the State Religion Committee of Tajikistan, he called Mr Rakhmon “the sun” and “the star of happiness” earlier this year.

Many ordinary Tajik are suspicious, though, and suspect that Mr Rakhmon’s new title is a crude attempt to curry favour.

A Dushanbe resident called Farhod said: “We have the lowest economic development in the post- Soviet space, our migrants are dying in Russia, our families are freezing in areas without electricity or poisoned by carbon monoxide of coal, corruption is developed, and the list can go on.

“However, what are our MPs doing? They compete to invent such laws to get the attention of the President. I am speechless.”

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Kazakh leader signs new employment law

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev signed into law changes to the country’s employment code that make it easier for companies to sack workers. The new law also makes industrial action harder to take. Businesses have said that the law is a necessary modernising step. Trade unions have said it is designed to undermine them.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Kazakh parliament approves budget cuts

NOV. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s parliament approved a budget designed to both limit spending during a period of low oil prices and target a national deficit that has crept up to a 10-year-high.

Perhaps with this in mind, the sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Ka- zyna announced plans to cap pay and close 33 of its 36 overseas offices and the Central Bank said that it would slow work on building a state-of-the- art data centre in Astana.

The government’s budget for 2016-18 acknowledged that economic growth had stalled and would measure only 1.2% this year, its lowest rate since 2009 — the height of the Global Financial Crisis.

It also specifically wanted to target a deficit which has grown to around 3% of GDP, its highest in the past decade.

Presenting the government’s budget, PM Karim Massimov acknowledged the severity of the economic challenge.

“On December 8, the government will adopt an anti-crisis programme for the next three years. We will unite all previous economic programmes under a new umbrella,” Mr Massimov told the Senate.

President Nursultan Nazarbayev later confirmed he will address the nation on Nov. 30 on plans to tackle to the growing economic malaise.

The new budget forecasts oil prices to remain within the $40- 50/barrel range and the tenge to remain stable at around 300/$1.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 258, published on Nov. 27 2015)

Blair flies to Georgia for ‘working dinner’ with PM

NOV. 18 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Has Tony Blair, the former British PM, found himself a new client? Speculation that he was now advising the Georgian Dream coalition government spiked after he flew to Tbilisi for dinner with Georgian PM Irakli Garibashvili.

Mr Blair’s business outfit, Tony Blair Associates, declined to comment but the Georgians were more keen to show off their much-feted visitor.

The PM’s website hosted a 1.58 minute long video showing Mr Blair and Mr Garibashvili enjoying the view, and a glass of wine, from a restaurant above Tbilisi before taking a funicular ride back down to the city.

The Georgian PM’s office described the meeting as a “working dinner”.

“Georgia’s democratic reforms, the situation in the world and the region, were the main topics of the meeting,” the PM’s office said without giving any more information. Perhaps the emphasis should be on “working dinner”. It’s likely that Mr Garibashvili would have paid for Mr Blair’s advice. Plenty of other leaders, including Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev, have.

And Mr Blair’s wife, a lawyer, is also involved in Georgia. Her company, Omnia Strategy, has been advising the Georgian justice system. It’s unclear exactly what advice, Mr Blair imparted. Although influential, his reputation is generally accepted to have been stained by the 2003 war in Iraq that he pursued with US President George W. Bush. Still, Georgia is an avowed fan of Mr Bush. It has named a street after him, and was one of his biggest allies during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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(News report from Issue No. 257, published on Nov. 20 2015)

 

Uzbekistan releases former MP

NOV. 12 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbekistan released Murod Juraev, a 63-year-old former MP, from prison after 21 years. He was jailed for allegedly plotting to overthrow the government, although human rights groups have said this is a fabrication. Observers linked Mr Juraev’s release to a visit this month to Uzbekistan by US Secretary of State John Kerry.

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(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

 

Kyrgyz President wants change

NOV. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Two years before he steps down as Kyrgyzstan’s president, Almazbek Atambayev, said he wants the country to fully embrace the parliamentary model of governance. Analysts interpreted this as an attempt to shore up power for his Social Democratic party.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

 

Kyrgyzstan ditches energy ministry

NOV. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan disbanded its energy ministry and reinvented it as a holding company under the ministry of environment. It will hold all the government’s stakes in its various energy projects. The reasons for the transformation have not been made clear.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 256, published on Nov. 13 2015)

 

Kazakh president seals deals in London

NOV. 3/4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev flew to Britain and France to sign a series of headline grabbing deals and pose for useful photo-ops.

In London, Mr Nazarbayev met with PM David Cameron and the Queen. The two sides signed 40 deals for £3b ($4.6b).

Importantly, Mr Nazarbayev’s eldest daughter Dariga, a deputy PM, accompanied him on the trip and was part of the official photo with the Queen. In Soviet and post-Soviet iconography, featuring in official photographs sends a strong signal and being photographed next to her father at an official engagement with the Queen will have boosted any presidential ambitions that Ms Nazarbayeva harbours.

In Paris, Mr Nazarbayev met with President Françoise Hollande and signed another set of deals worth over $5b, according to state media in Kazakhstan.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)

Georgian court hands Rustavi-2 TV to pro-government owner

NOV. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Georgia handed the opposition leaning Rustavi-2 television station back to a pro-government businessman who owned it in 2004- 6, drawing accusations it was clamping down on free speech.

Two days after the ruling hundreds of people took to the streets of Tbilisi to protest against what they say is a crackdown on media freedom, ramping up tension in Georgia’s increasingly polarised society.

Under the court ruling, Kibar Kha- lvashi took back control of 60% of the shares in Rustavi-2, one of the most popular TV channels in Georgia, which he said he was pressured into selling to supporters of the then president Mikheil Saaskashvili.

“I declared at the beginning that it was my battle for justice. I want justice to be restored for everyone that suffered from Saakashvili’s regime,” media quoted Mr Khalvashi as saying. “This applies not only to Rustavi-2, but also to all other personal property that has been lost or confiscated.”

The other 40% of Rustavi2 is held by Panorama ltd. The current owners, two businessmen, have appealed the court’s decision.

The row over ownership of Rus- tavi-2 is just the latest increasingly bitter row between supporters of the ruling Georgian Dream coalition and their opponents, mainly Mr Saakashvilil’s former party — the UNM.

The Georgian Dream coalition, bankrolled by Georgian billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili, won a parliamentary election in Georgian in 2012 and a presidential election in 2013. Since then public prosecutors have accused various supporters of Mr Saaskashvili of crimes when they were in power, imprisoning them or chasing them out of the country.

The US and European governments have warned the Georgian government of pursuing vendettas.

On Friday, several hundred people again gathered outside the headquarters of the TV station.

“We will not let the so-called new management enter our premises,” Rustavi2’s news anchor Zaal Udu- mashvili told the AFP news agency. “We will defend Rustavi-2 physically, using all available legal means.”

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 255, published on Nov. 6 2015)