Tag Archives: protest

Anti-coronavirus curfew protests continue in Georgia

MARCH 6 (The Bulletin) — Although some bars and restaurants have now been allowed to reopen, there were more protests in Georgia against the government’s anti-coronavirus 9pm – 5am curfew. Georgia has seen some of the most dogged protests against its government’s coronavirus restrictions. 

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— This story was published in issue 475 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 15 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Police in Almaty detain demonstrators

FEB. 28 2021  (The Bulletin) — Police in Almaty detained dozens of protesters who had been calling for the release of political prisoners in the largest anti-government demonstrations in Kazakhstan this year. In what has become fairly standard practice in Kazakhstan, police stopped protesters gathering in city centre squares and parks and detained leaders en route to the meetings. Activists have said that the right to protest barely exists in Kazakhstan.

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— This story was published in issue 474 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on March 5 2021

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Kazakh authorities clamp down on anti-China protests

ALMATY/FEB. 10 2021 (The Bulletin) —  Apparently unconcerned by hardening language from the West towards Beijing and its treatment of ethnic Kazakhs and Uyghurs, the authorities in Kazakhstan jailed a man for protesting outside the Chinese consulate in Almaty. 

Media reported that police detained Baibolat Kunbolatuly, who was part of a 10-person protest mainly of women holding photos of missing sons, brothers and husbands outside the consulate the day before, and that a court then efficiently sentenced him to 10 days in jail for breaking rules around mass gatherings. In Kazakhstan, protests require written permission from the authorities.

Mr Kunbolatuly had been protesting against the disappearance of his brother in China, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. He suspects that his brother is being held in one of China’s, by now notorious, re-education camps which have been built in Xinjiang province over the past four years to hold hundreds of thousands of Muslims.

China has said that the camps are education-focused and that they are designed to help ethnic Uyghurs and Kazakhs improve themselves. Human rights groups have called them prisons, a view Western governments are coming round to. 

In Kazakhstan, reporting on the camps in Xinjiang has been minimal but protests against China and its actions in Xinjiang are becoming more widespread.

The issue of China’s treatment of its Muslim minorities in Xinjiang is a thorny issue for the Kazakh government. 

It is reliant on Chinese cash to fund various infrastructure projects and China is also a major stakeholder in Kazakh industry. The flipside is that there are an estimated 200,000 ethnic Kazakhs living in Xinjiang and a large ethnic Uyghur population living in Kazakhstan.

And, embarrassingly for Kazakh officials, the major information leaks from Xinjiang over the past few years have also come from Kazakhs escaping over the border into Kazakhstan. They now want to prove to their Chinese counterparts that they are reliable partners.

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— This story was first published in issue 471 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Hundreds of people protest in Tbilisi and Batumi against coronavirus curfew

FEB. 7 2021 (The Bulletin) — Hundreds of people in Tbilisi and Batumi protested against a curfew imposed to prevent the spread of the coronavirus. The curfew comes into force each night at 9pm and is lifted at 5am. Anybody out on the streets during this time is fined. Georgia has seen some of the most well-supported anti-lockdown protests in the FSU.

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— This story was first published in issue 471 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Police in Georgia arrest anti-government protesters

JAN. 16 2021 (The Bulletin) — Police in Tbilisi arrested nine people during a protest outside the building hosting a party conference by the ruling Georgian Dream coalition. Scuffles broke out after police tried to stop demonstrators unfurling a banner accusing the Georgian Dream of stealing a parliamentary election last year. Opposition groups in Georgia have refused to take their seats in parliament and have promised to continue protests.

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— This story was first published in issue 469 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021

Armenian government declines gas price rise for consumers

YEREVAN/JUNE 19 (The Bulletin) — Consumers in Armenia will not pay any more for their gas despite a push by Russia’s Gazprom, the gas supplier, to increase prices after the Armenian Public Services Regulatory Commission ordered a price freeze.

The ruling is a victory for Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan who has styled himself as the champion of the people since he was propelled to power in a revolution in 2018. 

In 2015, street protests against rises to electricity tariffs forced the government into an embarrassing u-turn and Mr Pashinyan was desperate not to stoke frustration now, especially with anger at the government’s handling of the coronavirus growing and the prospect of the economy tipping into a recession.

Quoting the Public Services Regulatory Commission, media in Armenia said that consumers would continue to pay a subsidised 139 Armenian drams per cubic metre of gas and vulnerable groups will pay 100 drams per cubic metre if their consumption does not exceed 600 cubic metres per year.

Instead, businesses that consume more than 10,000 cubic metres of gas per year and greenhouses will pay more for their gas, meeting some of the price rises that the Russian gas monopoly Gazprom had been asking for.

Earlier this month, Mr Pashinyan had proposed that the Kremlin-led Eurasian Economic Union unify gas tariffs across the region.

This was rejected by the Kremlin, though, which said it needed more price flexibility to react to global market moves.

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— This story was first published in issue 451 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin on June 23 2020

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Gazprom wants to increase price of gas for Armenia’s poorest

YEREVAN/April 1 (The Bulletin) — Gazprom Armenia has applied to the country’s Public Services Regulatory Commission to increase the price of gas that it supplies to the poorest sections of Armenian society from August, media reported (April 1).  

Any move by Gazprom Armenia to increase the price it charges Armenian households for gas will be difficult to pull off. The impact of the coronavirus has undermined households’ ability to pay higher prices and Armenian society has a reputation for resisting utility price rises. In 2015 a proposed electricity price rise in Armenia led to major protests in Yerevan and an eventual climbdown.

Reports said that from Aug. 1, Gazprom Armenia wants to charge households on social benefits 36% more for their gas and to slightly reduce the price paid by other households. The overall effect would be to equal out pricing. There is no publicly available data on the number of low-income households on social benefits.

Armenian officials lined up to criticise the proposed price increase, calling it inappropriate given the probable economic impact of the spread of the coronavirus.

“Given the current situation in the global energy market, we consider it appropriate to start new negotiations on reducing the price of thousand cubic meters of gas on the Armenian-Georgian border,” Armenia’s deputy PM Mher Grigoryan wrote in a letter to the chairman of Gazprom, Alexei Miller.

The Russian side has not responded but negotiations are expected to be fraught. When Russia has previously increased the price it charges Armenia for gas, the Armenian government has said that it will switch to buying gas from its neighbour Iran with which it has built up friendly relations over the past decade.

Media also reported that Armenian PM Nikol Pashinyan had spoken to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the proposed gas price rises. He said that gas should be priced in roubles, which has fallen in value over the past month because of a slump in oil prices and the impact of the spread of the coronavirus.

“We believe that it will be more correct and logical to pay for gas in roubles,” Mr Pashinayn was quoted as saying. 

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— This story was first published in issue 441 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

COMMENT: Kazakh government on defensive after activist dies

>> Concessions are likely from the Kazakh government as it works hard to contain the fallout from the death in police custody of an opposition activist, writes James Kilner.

MARCH 3 2020 (The Bulletin) — As The Bulletin was going to press, a court in the northeastern Kazakh city of Semey ordered the release of Mukhtar Dzhakishev, perhaps the country’s most high-profile political prisoner.

Dzhakishev has been in prison since 2009, sent down because of various financial crimes. He had been a high flyer within the Kazakh elite, at the time of his arrest he was head of the nuclear agency Kazatomptom, although the government of Nursultan Nazarbayev always doubted his loyalty.

Many people, including foreign governments, suspected that the real reason that Dzhakishev had been imprisoned was because he was close to Mukhtar Ablyazov, the billionaire owner of BTA Bank who fled to Moscow and then London in 2009 and set himself up as an opposition leader.

The theory goes that Nazarbayev couldn’t get to Ablyazov, and still hasn’t, but he could take out some of his key Kazakhstan-based associates, including Dzhakishev.

So why release Dzhakishev now? Afterall, Ablyazov is still acting as an opposition leader from his base in Paris and only last year a court rejected Dzhakishev’s appeal for his early release on health grounds.

The answer could well lie with the death in police custody of opposition activist Dulat Agadil. In life, Agadil had not been a particularly serious threat to the government but in death, he had become a powerful force for the government’s opponents to rally around. He died in police custody on Feb. 25 in murky circumstances. The government was quick to rush out a statement saying that Agadil had died of an underlying heart condition and not from police mistreatment. Not many ordinary people believe the government and the opposition had been quick to start organising demonstrations. The one on Saturday was snuffed out by the security forces but more were promised.

Perhaps the release of Dzhakishev was a carrot that Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev believed was needed to pacify opposition momentum. It has allowed him to show himself as a moderate and even-handed president. 

It may also only be the beginning of the concessions that the Kazakh government is prepared to give out to contain the fallout from the death of Agadil. Whether it works or not, The Bulletin will be there to report and analyse in full.

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— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Police in Bishkek disperse protesters with teargas

MARCH 2 2020 (The Bulletin) — Armed police used teargas to disperse an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 demonstrators in central Bishkek who were protesting against the continued imprisonment of Sadyr Zhaparov, an adviser to ex-president Kurmanbek Bakiyev. He was sent to prison in 2017 for taking a government official hostage. The two sides did not fight but it was a reminder of how unstable street-level politics in Kyrgyzstan can be.
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— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020

Council of Europe summit move to Strasbourg from Tbilisi

FEB. 26 2020 (The Bulletin) — Georgia’s government abandoned plans to host the 130th session of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe in Tbilisi on May 15 because of concerns that the attendance of Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov would spark potentially violent anti-Russia demonstrations. Instead, the session will be held in Strasbourg. Georgia currently holds the rotating chair of the 47-member Council of Europe and the Ministers’ Committee was supposed to be a prestige international event in Tbilisi.
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— This story was first published in issue 438 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin

— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2020