SEPT. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Police arrested the governor of the Kostanai region in north Kazakhstan, Akhmetbek Akhmetzhanov, for corruption. Kazakh officials have arrested a handful of senior regional officials over the past year or so for corruption.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 5 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Norway’s foreign minister Boerge Brende visited Georgia to meet with President Giorgi Margvelshvili and PM Irakli Garibashili. In Tbilisi Mr Brende underlined Norway’s support for Georgia’s territorial integrity. Importantly for Georgia, Norway is a NATO country.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 8 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – At a conference in Tashkent this week, Deputy Premier Rustam Azimov said corruption and extortion were among the hurdles that private entrepreneurs face in Uzbekistan.
This is important because it is rare for government officials to admit that corruption blights Uzbekistan and its officials.
“Businesses in Uzbekistan are today experiencing a lot of problems related to the illegal interference in entrepreneurial activity. There is excessive bureaucracy, as well as bribery and extortion,” media quoted him as saying. Mr Azimov was speaking at national conference on the security forces’ role in reforming and diversifying the economy.
A Tashkent-based analyst said Mr Azimov’s comments may be a signal the government was about to launch an anti-corruption purge.
It may also be a way of deflecting problems that have hit Uzbekistan. Remittances have fallen by half and inflation is rising. Most of these problems are regional and linked to a weak Russian economy and a fall in oil prices, but the Uzbek government will want to shift responsibility.
Transparency International, the global anti-corruption watchdog, ranks Uzbekistan as one of the worst countries in the world for corruption.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 6 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Almaty ordered the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, until a few years ago one of the only genuine opposition parties in the country, to disband permanently. Media reported that the Kazakh ministry of justice said the party had misrepre- sented its activities. In 2011, a few months before a parliamentary election in 2012, a court suspended the Communist Party.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
SEPT. 11 2015, DUSHANBE (The Conway Bulletin) — Tajikistan’s security forces have been scouring rough countryside in a valley 150km from the capital Dushanbe for the country’s most wanted man, General Abduhalim Nazarzoda, a former deputy defence minister.
The authorities accuse Gen. Nazarzoda of masterminding a series of early morning attacks in Dushanbe and a police station at Vahdat, a town 10km away, on Sept. 4 that killed at least nine policemen and 13 gunmen.
In Dushanbe, the authorities blocked access to social media sites and ordered more soldiers to patrol along the streets.
Hoji Said, a local Dushanbe resident, summed up the tense atmosphere in the capital.
“I have not seen so many policemen in Dushanbe,” he said.
Still, despite the extra security, a World Cup football qualifier match between Tajikistan and Australia went ahead. Australia won 3-0.
Gen. Nazarzoda was one of the leaders of the Tajik United Opposition, a coalition that fought against the government in a civil war in the mid-1990s. He fled the country but returned after a UN- brokered peace deal ensured handed him a role in the government.
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(News report from Issue No. 247, published on Sept. 11 2015)
AUG. 31 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The owners of the Imedi TV channel in Georgia cancelled two popular talk shows, triggering accusations that they had bowed to pressure from the ruling Georgian Dream coalition. Opponents of Georgian Dream say that it is intimidating criticalmedia.
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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)
SEPT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Armenia is likely to hold a referendum in either November or December on constitutional amendments that would transfer power from the president to parliament, a senior member of the ruling HHK group told media.
This is clearest indication yet that a referendum on a new constitution, which the main opposition parties have said is designed to keep President Serzh Sargsyan’s grip on power when he leaves the presidency in 2018, is more than likely this year.
Vahram Baghdasaryan, leader of the HHK group, said: “If not in November, then in the beginning of December.”
This important because of the potentially destabilising impact of a referendum. Widespread street protests against a proposed increase in electricity prices in June showed just had fragile Armenia had become. Now the main opposition groups have pledged to turn the referendum into a de facto vote of confidence in the government and Mr Sargsyan.
Under the current constitution, Mr Sargsyan has to leave the presidency after two consecutive terms. He has said that he will comply with this stipulation but he has also said that he wants to transform Armenia into a parliamentary democracy.
His opponents say that he just trying to organise a power grab from inside parliament and that he wants to continue to run the country.
Armenia’s parliament is currently debating the constitutional changes. The ruling HHK group has said it is prepared to offer concessions to some of Armenia’s disparate opposition groups on the constitutional reform package in exchange for support.
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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)
SEPT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – The New York-based Human Rights Watch criticised Kazakhstan’s commitment to free speech after it ordered the independent-minded ADAM magazine to be suspended for three months for failing to publish copies in both Russian and Kazakh. The authorities closed down its predecessor ADAM Bol in 2014.
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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)
SEPT. 1 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – From Sept.1 government salaries and pensions in Uzbekistan increased by 10%, media reported, another indication that inflation is accelerating across the region.
Uzbek president Islam Karimov ordered 26, ostentatiously to improve the quality of life for ordinary people but in reality to keep up with price inflation in basic foodstuffs, utilities and petrol.
Like the rest of the region, Uzbekistan’s currency has fallen sharply in value and remittance from Russia have roughly halved.
The Uzbek government usually increases salaries and pensions once or twice a year. The previous salary increase of 12% came in December 2014.
As well as boosting salaries, the government is also increasing import duties on major staples ranging from meat and poultry, to dairy and fruits by around 30%. University tuition fees have risen by 15%. Part of the thinking behind the increase in duties is to ring-fence agricultural production in Uzbekistan during the economic downturn.
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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)
SEPT. 2 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) – Around 100 protesters scuffled with police in Yerevan over electricity price rises for businesses. Activists said they believe President Serzh Sargsyan has reneged on his promise to protesters in June to subsidise planned electricity price rises by omitting businesses from the deal.
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(News report from Issue No. 246, published on Sept. 4 2015)