Tag Archives: politics

Armenia’s government suggests pension reforms

JUNE 17 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The thorny issue of pension reform returned to centre stage in Armenia after the new government submitted a proposal that watered down unpopular reforms.

Earlier this year Armenia’s government resigned over the unpopularity of its changes to the pension system which came into effect on Jan. 1. The new law stated that people born after 1973 pay 5% of their salaries into a government scheme, a sum matched by the government.

Thousands of people demonstrated against this plan and the Constitutional Court eventually deemed it illegal and demanded that the new law was amended by Sept. 30.

Armenia was effectively plunged into a political crisis — and the issue of how to reform the out-of-date pension system was still unresolved.

Now the new government of Hovik Abrahamyan is trying to tackle the problem.

It has proposed that the scheme would only be obligatory for public servants who will also have their salaries raised from July 1. It’s a brave proposal and one that may gain traction. Like other states across the former Soviet Union, Armenia needs to reform its overly-generous state pension scheme and also avoid major public discontent.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)

Lunch with a Kyrgyz MP

BISHKEK/Kyrgyzstan, JUNE 14 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Dressed in a colourful striped shirt Narynbek Moldobayev is on first name terms with all the staff at this Italian restaurant in central Bishkek.

Moldobayev is the archetypal Kyrgyz MP and rather charming with it. Having moved seamlessly between three political parties in the last five years, his politics can be described as fluid — a common characteristic in Kyrgyzstan.

And it is this fluidity amongst the Kyrgyzstan’s political class, that’s important to examine as it is undermining, many say, Central Asia’s first parliamentary democracy.

An MP who supported former President Kurmanbek Bakiyev, ousted in a revolution in 2010, Moldobayev is now part of an opposition group that split from the nationalist Ata-Jurt party.

“I was never a nationalist,” he said as he tucked into a bowl of salad.

Moldobayev is 60-years-old and sentimental about the Soviet Union. He praises Russia unreservedly but is suspicious of China and its “desire to influence” the Central Asian energy sphere.

Moldobayev, primarily a businessman who made his money in the construction and oil industries, seems unbothered by the values of the party whose list he has paid his way to be on through donations. “Kyrgyz politics is built on personal gripes,” he said wearily, explaining why some parties in the parliament have effectively disintegrated.

Many say Kyrgyzstan’s political system might be more representative if it ditched party lists in favour of geographic constituencies. In the parliamentary vote in 2010 five parties took less than 40% of the vote creating a fractious, and many argue weaker, parliament. Moldobayev disagrees with this viewpoint, citing potential for “dangerous localism”.

There may be another reason, though. Since few people actually know who Moldobayev is and he might not win a seat.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)

Ex-spy made Kyrgyz gold chief

JUNE 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – The appointment of Tokon Mamytov, a former spy, as head of Kyrgyz state gold mining champion Kygyzaltyn could be good news for investors.

Kyrgyzaltyn acts as the government’s representative in partnerships with Canadian Centerra Gold, operator of the country’s major gold mine, Kumtor, and a number of other Joint Stock mining projects including Altynken (Chui province) and Makmal (Jalal-Abad province).

Starting out in the Soviet-era KGB, Mr Mamytov has spent his adult life in security and defence postings, a background some argue doesn’t qualify him to run a mining company.

But others see Mr Mamytov’s appointment as signal that change is coming.

Kubat Rahimov, a local economist, said Mr Mamytov’s background in the security services, was a good thing as Kyrgyzaltyn’s previous leaders were young western-educated types that “played by Asian rules”. This was a thinly veiled reference to corruption.

Mr Mamytov will not have full control over the sector — licenses are issued via the State Agency of Geology and Mineral Resources — but the position makes him the government’s man on the ground across projects accounting for 97% of the country’s gold production.

Mr Mamytov will need to draw on experience from his last post — managing conflict on the Kyrgyz-Tajik frontier as a deputy PM in charge of security, defence and border issues — in his new post. Along with corruption, community conflict is the biggest problem facing the Kyrgyz mining sector today.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 189, published on June 18 2014)

FDI increases in Georgia

JUNE 10 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Foreign investment in Georgia jumped to $260m in the first quarter of 2014, a 15% increase from a year earlier, the statistics agency reported. Foreign investment is a vital part of Georgia’s economy. The government has tried to restore investor confidence after two destabilising elections.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 188, published on JUNE 11 2014)

President flees from Georgian breakaway region

JUNE 1 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Alexander Ankvab, de facto president of Abkhazia, one of Georgia’s two breakaway regions, resigned days after protesters stormed his residence and forced him to flee.

The protesters had been complaining of rampant corruption and a struggling economy. Mr Ankvab, elected in 2011 on a five year term, had initially been defiant after he fled demonstrators on May 27 but, apparently, after a meeting with his Russian sponsors he quit. There is little doubt where real power over Abkhazia lies.

Abkhazia has now set a presidential election for Aug. 24 meaning three months of uncertainty.

Although Akhazia’s independence is recognised by only a few countries, mainly driven by Russian pressure, Georgia is a bystander in Abkhazian politics.

Georgia’s impotency was summed up by its minister for reconciliation, Paata Zakareishvili. In an interview with Georgian media he pointed out that Russia had sent Vladislav Surkov, a senior aide to President Vladimir Putin, to mediate.

“Moscow rules there on the ground,” he said. “They are communicating with each other through Russia.”

As with any power change in Georgia’s two breakaway regions, South Ossetia is the other rebel province, this period of flux is a potentially dangerous one for Georgia as it can trigger instability.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)

South Kyrgyzstani protest for ex-PM

JUNE 3 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) -An estimated 300 people in Osh, south Kyrgyzstan, blocked a main road to protest the arrest of former parliamentarian Ahmatbek Keldibekov. The authorities have accused Mr Keldibekov of abuse of office. Any sign of unrest in south Kyrgyzstan is a potential problem.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)

Tension drops in east Tajikistan

MAY 28 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) -Tension has eased in south-east Tajikistan after officials agreed to launch an investigation into the causes of violence that killed several people a week earlier, media reported. The government’s authority is limited in the region of Gorno-Badakhshan. In 2012, security forces fought pitch battles to control the area after they tried to arrest a local warlord.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 187, published on JUNE 4 2014)

Opposition leader jailed in Azerbaijan

MAY 26 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Azerbaijan sentenced the well-regarded election monitor Anar Mammadli to 5-1/2 years in prison for tax evasion and illegal business dealings. Rights groups say Mammadli’s real crime was to be an opposition figure. The authorities are cracking down on anti-government figures.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)

Abkhaz protesters storm presidential administration in Georgia

MAY 27 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) -Protesters stormed the presidential administration in the Georgian rebel region of Abkhazia, forcing Aleksandr Ankvab, its leader, to flee. Protesters said they were frustrated with corruption. Mr Ankvab later denounced their action as a coup attempt. Russia has supported Abkhazian independence from Georgia since a 2008 war.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)

Tajik military strikes cause protests

MAY 21 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) – Tajikistan’s restive southeast is threatening to boil over again after a special forces operation near Khorog, capital of Gorno-Badakhshan region, led to four deaths and a week of protests.

The deaths and the subsequent protests underline the difficulty that Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon has in imposing central government will on this restive part of the country.

The target of the operation was given as drug traffickers. That, though, may have been a euphemism for a local anti-government warlord.

The special forces operation killed two people in broad daylight and injured several others, angering locals who then protested and tried to storm the security forces headquarters. Reports said that two protesters were killed and more injured when security forces fired on the crowd.

The whole operation is reminiscent of a security operation in the same area two years ago. Back then, the army had to virtually close off the area and engage in street to street fighting with rebels. Dushanbe may have committed another blunder in a part of the country where its authority has been limited ever since a civil war in the 1990s.

Gorno-Badakhshan, whose population backed the ill-fated United Tajik Opposition in that conflict, is a hub of anti-government resentment.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 186, published on May 28 2014)