JUNE 10 2021 (The Bulletin) — Russia delivered another 70,000 doses of its Sputnik-V coronavirus vaccine to Uzbekistan, bringing the total it has sent to Tashkent to 240,000. Sputnik-V, the AstraZeneca vaccine and a Chinese vaccine form the core of the Uzbek vaccination programme. It has given at least one vaccine to 2.5m people.
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— This story was published in issue 48 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 16 2021
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JUNE 10 2021 (The Bulletin) — The International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) disqualified Kazakh weightlifter Anna Nurmankhambetova from the 2012 Olympic Games because of a failed drugs test, stripping her of the silver medal that she had been awarded retrospectively because other athletes had also failed drugs tests. Several Kazakh athletes, weightlifters and cyclists, have previously failed drugs tests too.
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— This story was published in issue 48 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 16 2021
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JUNE 9 2021 (The Bulletin) — Around a third of Tbilisi’s 1m residents have been infected with the coronavirus, Tengiz Tsertsvadze, head of the Infectious Diseases and AIDS Centre, told media. He also said that two-thirds of the people who had been infected were asymptomatic and didn’t even know that they had been infected.
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— This story was published in issue 487 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 9 2021
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JUNE 9 2021 (The Bulletin) — Indian tour agencies are offering workers trying to return to jobs in the UAE a two-week package stay in Yerevan to fit in with coronavirus rules imposed by the UAE, media reported. The UAE has banned flights directly from India because of a coronavirus variant but has said that Indian workers can enter after a two-week quarantine in a third country. Armenia has loose coronavirus restrictions and has become a preferred option.
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— This story was published in issue 487 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 9 2021
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JUNE 7 2021 (The Bulletin) — Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov appeared to be gearing up to replace much of the senior judiciary in the country after he issued a statement criticising their work. He said that the unprofessionalism of judges was holding back the development of society. Mr Japarov, who took power in a coup in October, has earned a reputation as a single-minded populist who has consolidated his power through an election, tweaks to the constitution and the expropriation of a gold mine.
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— This story was published in issue 487 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 9 2021
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JUNE 6 2021 (The Bulletin) — Spain’s Sergio Perez, driving a Red Bull-Racing Honda, won the Formula 1 Grand Prix in Baku after championship leaders Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen both crashed out. The Baku circuit has earned a reputation as one of the most exciting Grand Prixs with drivers racing through the city’s streets.
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— This story was published in issue 487 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 9 2021
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TBILISI/JUNE 5 2021 (The Bulletin) — A court in Georgia accused a bishop of presiding over a sadist regime at a school for disabled orphans that beat and sexually abused children, rare criticism of the Orthodox Church in Georgia where it is held in high esteem.
The court order to remove disabled children from the church-run school will also embarrass the ruling Georgian Dream government which has been criticised for its close ties with the Orthodox Church and for being reluctant to carry out a full investigation at the Ninotsminda Orphanage despite evidence of abuse.
Four investigations since the orphanage was opened in 2015 have fallen through.
Anna Arganashvili, head of the Partnership for Human Rights NGO which had pushed for the court’s intervention, said: “The court decreed that if children are in danger today, it must be stopped immediately. This is crucial.”
The Georgian Orthodox Church, and Bishop Spiridon Abuladze whose jurisdiction the orphanage falls under, have denied any wrongdoing and appealed the court’s decision to effectively close the school where 57 children had lived.
Media reported that the Ninotsminda Orphanage, 160km southwest of Tbilisi, is one of three orphanages that the Georgian Orthodox Church runs. Online reports quoted children from the school as saying that they had been placed in stress positions, beaten and abused.
In Georgia, with its instinctively traditional culture, the Orthodox Church is one of the most powerful institutions in the country. Analysts have said that an unofficial alliance with the Orthodox Church has been vital to the Georgian Dream’s election successes since 2012.
Last month the Georgian Dream was one of the only political parties in Georgia not to sign a pledge to protect gay rights, which the Georgian Orthodox Church opposes.
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— This story was published in issue 487 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 9 2021
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JUNE 4 2021 (The Bulletin) — Kazakhstan has dropped negotiations with British-Swedish pharmaceutical company AstraZeneca to buy its coronavirus vaccine because of the negative press surrounding it. Some countries have suspended use of the AstraZeneca vaccine because of blood clots in younger people. Russia’s Sputnik-V and its domestically produced QazVac form the basis of the Kazakh vaccination programme.
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— This story was published in issue 487 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 9 2021
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JUNE 3 2021 (The Bulletin) — The Switzerland-based UCI, cycling’s governing body, moved its 2021 World Championship from Ashgabat to Glasgow. It didn’t give a reason for the change of venue but UCI has been under pressure to scrap the Ashgabat event because of the increasingly eccentric behaviour of Turkmen leader Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov who denies that there has ever been a case of the coronavirus inside Turkmenistan. Mr Berdymukhamedov considered hosting the cycling championships as a boost to his prestige.
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— This story was published in issue 487 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 9 2021
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JUNE 3 2021 (The Bulletin) — Azerbaijan said that it would waive coronavirus quarantine rules for football fans travelling to Baku for the delayed European Championship 2020. Baku hosts four games, including a quarterfinal match. For the first time, the European Championships matches are spread across the continent.
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— This story was published in issue 487 of the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin, on June 9 2021
— Copyright the Central Asia & South Caucasus Bulletin 2021