JAN. 24 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police detained several journalists as they left their homes to travel to an unauthorised protest against the closure of the Adam Bol news magazine, media reported quoting associates of the journalists. The UN also said that the freedom to protest in Kazakhstan has worsened recently.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)
JAN. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Alexander Tchikaidze quit as Georgia’s interior minister after a man who accused him of covering up the death of two people killed by police in 2006 was himself killed by a bomb. Mr Tchikaidze, an ex-police colonel, had been interior minister since 2013.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)
JAN. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Students in Uzbekistan are being forced into signing petitions supporting the presidential candidature of Uzbek leader Islam Karimov, the Uzbek arm of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Mr Karimov has said he is going to stand for another term as president in an election in March.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)
JAN. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The lower house of Uzbekistan’s parliament approved the re-selection of Shavkat Mirziyoyev as an official PM candidate. Mr Mirziyoyev has been PM since 2003 and Uzbek analysts said it was highly likely that he would retain the job after the March presidential election.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)
>>Ukraine’s government has taken on a very Georgian face>>
JAN. 14 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A third former Georgian minister has signed up to work for the anti-Russian government in Ukraine. This time Gia Getsadze, who held various high ranking positions under former Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili, is to become Ukraine’s deputy justice minister, media reported.
Mr Getsadze follows Georgia’s former healthcare minister Alexander Kvitashvili and former deputy interior minister Eka Zguladze to Kiev.
And this is important. Georgia’s relations with Russia have much improved since Mr Saakashvili left office in 2013 but these ties are still fragile.
What Georgia wants to avoid is the relatively new government in Kiev appearing heavily populated by Georgians. If it does, relations between Georgia and Russia could be damaged once again.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)
JAN. 15 (The Conway Bulletin) – Georgia’s government plans to sell the tallest building in the port of Batumi — a slender 35-storey white tower with a golden ferris wheel in one side. The tower had been earmarked as part of a new university and was seen as prestige project for the previous government of President Mikheil Saakashvili.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)
>>Presidential election set for March 29 in Uzbekistan>>
JAN. 15 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The clue was in the headline. A pro-government news outlet in Uzbekistan, they are all pro-government, ran a story under the headline: “Incumbent President Islam Karimov’s re-election scheduled”.
Nothing, it seems, could be more certain. Mr Karimov has already ruled over Uzbekistan for 25 years, despite constitutional articles that bans one person from holding the post for more than two consecutive terms.
Few people expect any surprises from this campaign and it appears that it suits the United States, Russia and China to keep the status quo. The only two other candidates cleared to run in the election by the Uzbek Central Election Committee are avowed supporters of Mr Karimov.
Importantly, also, there is little mention of Gulnara Karimova, Mr Karimova’s eldest daughter. She had been talked of as a successor to her father but has fallen from grace over the past 18 months or so. She remains under house arrest and many of her associates are in prison.
Uzbekistan’s up and coming presidential election, set for March 29, will be marked by its trademark lack of any real competition.
A seasoned Uzbekistan watcher also said that Uzbeks are apathetic about the prospect of another Karimov term in office.
“People, you know, are apathetic,” he said. “I don’t expect any surprises.”
Mr Karimov has been in power in Uzbekistan since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. It’s inconceivable that he won’t win March’s election again.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)
>>Nazarbayev summons his chief economic lieutenant for talks>>
JAN. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakh president Nursultan
Nazarbayev summoned the head of Samruk Kazyna, the country’s
sovereign wealth fund, for crisis talks over the falling price of
oil and the drop in the value of the Russian rouble.
The meeting highlights just how worried Mr Nazarbayev and his
senior ministers are about the recent economic downturn. Most major
financial institutions now expect the Kazakh economy to grow by
only 1.5% this year, a relatively small amount.
When Mr Nazarbayev announced last year a new economic policy, he
aimed to enter the New Year with a Keynesian industrial programme
that would have injected billions into construction projects and
subsidies.
Currency depreciations and oil markets, however, have shattered the
plan.
After his meeting with Mr Nazarbayev, Umirzak Shukeyev, the Samruk
Kazyna chief, said: “The goal is to reduce administrative costs by
20% and investment engagements by 18%.”
This, then, is the opposite of what had been promised.
The most feared buzzwords on the streets from Almaty to Atyrau are
devaluation and austerity. Several consulting and investment firms
have forecast a devaluation in the first quarter. The research
branch of Kazakhstan’s second largest lender, Halyk Bank, told
Bloomberg that they deem a depreciation of the tenge as inevitable.
The leader of the National Business Association, Rakhim Oshakbayev
publicly asked the government to protect private companies from the
risk of devaluation (Jan. 20).
In Kazakhstan, the government is expected to act to reverse the
economic downturn but with no significant increase in hydrocarbon
and commodity output, its only option is to dig into the reserves
of the sovereign fund and hope for the best, or so it often seems.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)
JAN. 16 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Spanish authorities
released from detention Kazakh opposition figure Muratbek
Ketebayev. Kazakhstan wants Mr Ketebayev extradited to face
criminal charges, including rebellion. Reports said Spain had still
not made a decision on his extradition.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)
>>Murders have strained Armenia-Russia relations>>
JAN. 20 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — A Russian soldier who allegedly killed a family of seven near his base in Armenia will be tried in a Russian military court and not by an Armenian civil court, media reported.
On Jan. 19, a week after six members of the same family died, a six-month-old baby died of wounds sustained in the same attack. No motive has been put forward for the murders.
The news that Valery Permyakov, the soldier who reportedly shot dead the family and then went on the run, will be tried in a Russian military court rather than an Armenian civil court will enflame tension further.
On Jan. 15, three days after the murders, several thousand people demonstrated in Yerevan and Gyumri, where Russia keeps a large military base, calling for the soldier to be handed over to Armenian police.
Reports from the demonstration at Gyumri said that 12 people were injured in fighting with riot police.
Relations between Russia and Armenia are generally cordial — Armenia has joined the Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union and also looks to the Kremlin to both support its economy and also to keep the military balance in the region — but the murders and the economic slowdown have strained ties.
For Armenian president Serzh Sargsyan, the murders and the public discontent they have fermented, represent a problem. He needs to ensure that relations with Russia remain good but that the protesters also feel like they are being listened to.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)