NOV. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prosecutors in Georgia charged former president Mikheil Saakashvili with complicity in the murder of banker Sandro Girgvilani in 2006, media reported. Girgliani was killed after a row in a bar with interior ministry officials. Mr Saakashvili is living in self-imposed exile in New York.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
NOV. 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Turkmenistan held municipal elections on Nov. 23 which, according to a blog post on the US-fund Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty website, failed to generate much interest. The blog reported that although official turnout was 92.76%, it was difficult to find people who had voted.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
DEC. 2 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The OSCE said it does not expect the Uzbek parliamentary election on Dec. 21 to be either free or fair and that it will be sending only a small group to the vote.
In total the OSCE will send 20 observers to cover the election in Uzbekistan, a country with 30m people and 135 electoral districts.
The Uzbek government, though, had a slightly different way of interpreting the OSCE’s perceived snub. It said that the OSCE’s limited observation mission was because there had been large improvements in the process.
“There is a unanimous opinion that no problems are expected,” the Uzbek government said in a statement. The OSCE has never judged an election in post-Soviet Uzbekistan to be either free or fair.
Of course, in a way, the Uzbek government is correct. There are no problems expected in terms of the result.
The Uzbek government made sure that only four pro- president political parties were allowed to run for the 135 seats. The Uzbek Central Election Commission rejected the unofficial Erk opposition party’s registration application.
The importance of these parliamentary elections is not that they will, or even could, trigger a change in how Uzbekistan is run, instead they are an indicator ahead of presidential elections in 2015.
Signals from Uzbekistan have suggested that President Islam Karimov’s position has been weakened by a prolonged power struggle over the past year. If any strong contenders emerge out of the parliamentary elections, even from the pro-presidential parties, it could make for a more dynamic presidential vote.
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(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
NOV. 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s prosecutor charged Melis Myrzakmatov, the once powerful mayor of Osh, for alleged corruption in a move linked to next year’s parliamentary election.
Mr Myrzakmatov, a nationalist, ruled Osh, Kyrgyzstan’s second city, with significant de facto autonomy from Bishkek between 2009 and 2013. He was eventually upseated by central government but last year he announced his intention to compete in parliamentary elections scheduled for autumn 2015.
The new corruption charges, so the theory goes, are designed to scupper these ambitions.
Kyrgyzstan’s General Prosecutor accused Mr Myrzakmatov of stealing $500,000 during the tender of a construction project for a bridge in Osh.
Mr Myrzakmatov has been one of the government’s most outspoken and formidable opponents. Such was his hold over Osh that he survived the political reshuffle after the country’s revolution in 2010 and ethnic violence between Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in June of the same year.
Many Uzbeks suspect Mr Myrzakmatov played a role in instigating the ethnic violence to consolidate his control over Osh.
Mr Myrzakmatov’s party, Uluttar Birimdigi, which is not in the current parliament, would have been guaranteed strong support among Kyrgyz in Osh and elsewhere in the South. This would have complicated the electoral arithmetic for other dominant parties, including President Almazbek Atambayev’s Social Democratic Party of Kyrgyzstan.
Mr Myrzakmatov is being charged in absentia as his current whereabouts is unknown. Mr Atambayev launched a
‘war on corruption’ when he was inaugurated 2011. Most of the victims of this so-called appeared to be his political rivals.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 211, published on Dec. 3 2014)
NOV. 23 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Many of Georgia’s top politicians and businessmen gathered at the funeral in Tbilisi of former economy minister Kakha Bendukidze who died this month in London. Bendukidze was aged 58 when he died. He was the architect of the privatisation drive under former president Mikheil Saakashvili.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
NOV. 20 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The OSCE, Europe’s election monitoring watchdog, said it will send a limited observation mission to Uzbekistan’s parliamentary elections on Dec. 21. The OSCE has never judged an election in Uzbekistan to be free and fair and has said it is pointless sending a larger team to the vote.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
NOV. 19 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Serik Akhmetov, a former Kazakh prime minister and defence minister, was arrested and placed under house arrest for alleged corruption.
It’s been a spectacular fall from grace for the man who was prime minister in April before being moved to the head the defence ministry. He was sacked as defence minister in October.
Powerbases in Kazakhstan are still formed at a local level and it was clear that Mr Akhmetov was going to find himself under increased pressure when senior officials from his home region of Karaganda started to be arrested.
A local court has imprisoned former governor of the region, Baurzhan Abdishev and the former mayor of the city of Karaganda, Meyram Smagulov as well as other officials.
A loyal figure ready to accept any inconvenient position under the instruction of President Nursultan Nazarbayev, Mr Akhmetov was one of two powerful men from the Karaganda region. The other one, Nurlan Nigmatullin, is now head of the presidential administration. Businessmen used to say that without Mr Akhmetov’s approval, no deals could be reached in Kazakhstan.
“It would appear [that] the arrest of the former PM of Kazakhstan is about graft, but it could also be an attempt to rid the field of competitive presidential successors,” said Stacy Closson, professor at the University of Kentucky and expert on Central Asian elites.
Possibly.
Mr Akhmetov’s arrest certainly changes the relationship between corruption and politics in Kazakhstan. Previously, only political opponents used to be the target of corruption charges. Now loyalists seem vulnerable too.
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(News report from Issue No. 210, published on Nov. 26 2014)
NOV. 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Pro-Russian demonstrators in Bishkek protested against a visit to Kyrgyzstan by US billionaire philanthropist George Soros, an unusual welcome for a man who spends millions of dollars on the country each year.
Up to 170 protesters, including the head of Kyrgyzstan’s only real Communist Party, carried slogans such as “USA – Get your hands off sovereign Kyrgyzstan” and “Soros – Let us live in peace and friendship”.
Mr Soros, a US citizen, was in Bishkek for the first time in 10 years to meet with representatives of his Open Society Foundation and President Almazbek Atambayev.
The Open Society’s budget for 2013 was $2.2 million, mostly spent on health, education and governance programs. State-controlled Russian news outlet RIA Novosti made little mention of the foundation’s work but applauded the protests, noting spuriously that Soros’ last visit to the country in 2004 was accompanied by a revolution the following year.
“Of course, there is no direct proof that he came to realise different aims. However, there is no reason to believe a citizen of the United States,” the RIA-Novosti report said.
At their meeting, Mr Atambayev thanked Mr Soros for his continued contributions to the country. Kyrgyzstan’s parliament, though, appears less impressed. It is due to consider a Russia-inspired bill that will force all foreign-funded NGOs — including Mr Soros’s Open Society Foundation — to register as foreign agents.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)
NOV. 15 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – An estimated 30,000 people crammed into the centre of Tbilisi for perhaps the largest anti-government rally since the Georgian Dream coalition defeated the party of former President Mikheil Saakashvili in a parliamentary election in 2012 and a presidential election in 2013.
The demonstrators waved Georgian flags and pictures of Mr Saakashvili, who now lives in New York and is wanted by Georgia’s prosecutors for various alleged crimes, and shouted anti-Russia slogans.
They blamed Russia for annexing the rebel states of Abkhazia and South Ossetia. Importantly they also blamed their current government for not standing up to Russia.
Mr Saakashvili addressed the crowd via a Kiev video-link.
“Let’s show Georgia’s government that the nation is united against the serious threat to its independence, its future,” he said.
The importance of the rally, though, was not the appearance of Mr Saakashvili on a video-link but its size. It hasn’t taken long for the glamour of the Georgian Dream coalition to fade.
Allies in the EU and the United States have accused Georgian Dream of petty revenge tactics in pursuing former ministers and charging them with various crimes. Earlier this month PM Irakli Garibashvili also sacked the popular defence minister, Irakli Alasania, triggering a wave of resignations.
Street politics are still a major force in Georgia and the rally could be a sign that after a relatively calm 12 months, instability is returning to Georgian politics.
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(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)
NOV. 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Kyrgyzstan’s Ata Meken party, one of three parties in the ruling government, said it supported nationalising the Kumtor gold mine. Kumtor is the focus of a row between Kyrgyzstan and its Canadian partner Centerra Gold. Ata Meken may have chosen this populist policy to bolster itself ahead of a parliamentary election next year.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 209, published on Nov.19 2014)