Tag Archives: security

Azerbaijan increases arms spending

OCT. 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — One of the features of Azerbaijan’s oil boom has been its parallel armaments boom. As Azerbaijan’s economy has grown, so has its expenditure on weapons.

And 2014, according to media reports, is not going to be an exception. The Azerbaijani state budget forecasts spending 1.6b manat ($2b) on weapons next year, a 7% increase on 2013.

Azerbaijan is still at war, officially anyway, with Armenia over the disputed region of Nagorno-Karabakh. It is clearly winning the arms race with its neighbour and biggest enemy.

The Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) has estimated that in real terms, taking out inflation and currency fluctuations, Azerbaijan’s military spending has increased ten-fold since 2000. Armenia has doubled defence spending in the same period.

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(News report from Issue No. 155, published on Oct. 9 2013)

Russian MP visits base in Tajikistan

OCT. 7 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Russia’s base in Tajikistan is essential for regional security Russian parliamentarian Sergei Naryshkin said on an official visit to Dushanbe. After a one year delay, Tajikistan’s parliament on Oct. 1 ratified a deal to extend by 30 years Russia’s lease on the base, its largest overseas operation.

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(News report from Issue No. 155, published on Oct. 9 2013)

Azerbaijan increases military spending

OCT. 8 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Azerbaijan will increase spending on military kit again next year, media reported quoting the national budget. Since 2000, Azerbaijan, with its oil and gas fuelled economy, has increased spending on military equipment 10-fold.

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(News report from Issue No. 155, published on Oct. 9 2013)

ICG report shows inequality problems in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 30 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan’s oil wealth is masking major structural problems, a report by the Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group (ICG) said. Corruption, a lack of a succession plan, spreading Islamic extremism and inequalities are the main problems, the report said.

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(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

ICG says inequalities are a problem for Kazakhstan

OCT. 2 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Kazakhstan may look like a stable and prosperous nation, the influential Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group (ICG) wrote in a new report, but this glossy facade hides serious structural problems.

The ICG report is a rare foray into Kazakhstan. The think tank normally concentrates on Kazakhstan’s more obviously problematic southern Central Asian neighbours.

And that’s really the point that the ICG makes. Kazakhstan may look different from the rest of Central Asia but its energy wealth is hiding very similar problems.

These are, the report said, an aging autocratic leader without a proper succession plan, official corruption, spreading Islamic extremism and a yawning inequality gap.

Kazakh officials point to the country’s rise through various global indexes but the ICG was unequivocal.

“Kazakhstan risks becoming just another Central Asian authoritarian regime that squandered the advantages bestowed on it by abundant natural resources,” it said.

Perhaps the least documented of these issues is the inequality gap. Astana and Almaty are booming. It doesn’t take long, though, for the landscape to change.

“Many rural residents learn only from state television that they live in a prosperous energy-rich country,” the ICG wrote. “Residents of a small village only 60km from Astana do not have a regular supply of drinking water in the winter and say the authorities have ignored their situation for years.”

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Azerbaijan conducts peacekeeping operation in Afghanistan

OCT. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A fresh unit of soldiers from Azerbaijan flew to Kabul for peacekeeping duties alongside a Turkish contingent. Media said there were 94 Azerbaijani soldiers in Afghanistan, part of the US-led coalition military fighting the Taliban. Their main roles are to guard the TV tower in Kabul and carrying out various patrols.

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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved

(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Border tensions rise between Uzbekistan and Kyrgyzstan

OCT. 1 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek soldiers are expected to withdraw from disputed territory on the border with Kyrgyzstan, media reported. Local Kyrgyz accused the Uzbek soldiers of occupying the land days earlier. Tension has been rising on the Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan border for the past year.

(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Most refugees in Azerbaijan are Afghans

SEPT. 25 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Most of the 1,520 refugees seeking asylum in Azerbaijan are from Afghanistan, Elsever Agayev, an Azerbaijani official at the UN, said. Mr Agayev’s comments were a rare insight into refugees in Azerbaijan. After Afghans, the biggest number of asylum seekers are from Chechnya, which is part of Russia, and Iran.

(News report from Issue No. 154, published on Oct. 2 2013)

Trial begins for Islamic extremists in Kazakhstan

SEPT. 23 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — A court in Atyrau, near Kazakhstan’s Caspian Sea coast, began the trial of nine people for allegedly plotting attacks and being members of a banned Islamic extremist organisation, media reported. Kazakhstan has been combating a rise in attacks linked to militant Islamic groups since 2010.

(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)

CSTO enhances Tajik border security

SEPT. 24 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — The Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a Russia-led military group, will arm Tajik forces along its border with Afghanistan, Russian President Vladimir Putin said after a meeting in Sochi, south Russia. The CSTO is worried about the spread of the Taliban from Afghanistan after NATO leaves in 2014.

(News report from Issue No. 153, published on Sept. 25 2013)