DEC. 11 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek foreign minister Abdulaziz Kamilov led a delegation to Washington to meet with US State Department officials for annual talks, media reported. No details of the conversation were made public but the focus would have been on relations between the two countries and NATO’s withdrawal from Afghanistan next year.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 16 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Swedish telecoms company TeliaSonera sacked another top executive from its Eurasian division which has been linked to murky deals in both Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan.
The allegations of dubious deals bring into focus the links between the Uzbek and Kazakh elites and Western companies’ desire to tap into markets.
Media reported that Veysel Aral, head of TeliaSonera’s Eurasia unit, was fired after only 10 months in the job.
He took over in February from Tero Kivisaari who had been head of the unit in 2007 when it made a $350m payment to a Gibraltar-registered company linked to Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, in return for a 3G licence.
Swedish media released details of that deal a couple of years ago triggering an internal investigation that has led to several high-level resignations and sackings at TeliaSonera.
Before Mr Aral took over from Mr Kivisaari as head of TeliaSonera’s Eurasia unit he had been in charge of KCell, TeliaSonera’s Kazakhstan subsidiary. Earlier this month a Swedish newspaper also raised questions over a $200m deal in 2012 by KCell to buy telecoms infrastructure from companies owned by Karim Massimov, head of Kazakhstan’s presidential administration.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek President Islam Karimov replaced his long-serving interior minister Bakhodyr Matlyubov. Analysts said the new interior minister General-Major Adkham Akhmedbayev, was a member of the so-called Tashkent clan and that his promotion gave the security services extended reach.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 12 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan will release 92,000 prisoners, mainly the young and old, in one of its annual mass amnesties, media reported. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty quoted a senior parliamentarian as saying the amnesty showed Uzbekistan was serious about reform. Reducing mass overcrowding in its prisons is a more likely trigger for the amnesty.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbek President Islam Karimov sacked interior minister Bakhodyr Matlyubov, 62, and replaced him with his deputy, General-Major Adkham Akhmedbayev.
Gen-Maj Akhmedbayev becomes only the third interior minister in Uzbekistan’s 22 year history as an independent country.
His promotion, though, is more interesting than merely as an historical statistic.
In Uzbekistan, the interior minister is an important position, and Mr Karimov’s decision to promote Gen-Maj Akhmedbayev has an intriguing sub-plot. Gen-Maj Akhmedbayev is a member of the so-called Tashkent Clan which is competing for influence with the Samarkand Clan.
The most powerful member of the Tashkent Clan is Rustam Inoyatov, head of the Uzbek security service.
After Gen-Maj Akhmedbayev’s promotion, commentators and analysts immediately said that they detected the hand of the increasingly powerful Mr Inoyatov behind the scenes. Gen-Maj Akhmedbayev is a former member of the Uzbek security services. His control of the interior ministry now extends the power and influence of the Uzbek security services.
It’s also important for the apparent power struggle unfolding in the background. Mr Inoyatov is considered the main protagonist of the fall from grace of Gulnara Karimova, Mr Karimov’s eldest daughter and a potential successor.
Various scenarios could continue to play out in Uzbekistan ahead of a presidential election in 2015. All, though, it seems include a stronger Tashkent clan influence over the country and a weaker president.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 17 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Unable to sell equipment that had belonged to Uzdunrobita, the Uzbek subsidiary of Russia’s MTS, media reported that the state’s Uzbektelecom has taken charge of it. MTS closed down Uzdunrobita last year after the authorities started investigating it for tax evasion.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 13 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Perhaps Uzbek President Islam Karimov plans to re-position himself as a defender of civil society. On Dec. 13 he signed a decree apparently aimed at promoting Uzbek non-government, non-profit organisations.
It’s, frankly, a curious agenda to push and the real reasons behind the drive to relax the burden on civil society are still to emerge. From Jan. 1 registration fees for local branches of NGO will be reduced.
It’s been hard for NGOs in Uzbekistan. They have routinely complained of inspections from tax officials which result in petty fines.
As for human rights groups, they’ve mainly been forced to leave. News agencies have been chased out too.
The list of problems that real NGOs and civil activists face in Uzbekistan is long, very long. This decree is likely to be window dressing. There is still a long way to go to strength civil society in Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 165, published on Dec. 18 2013)
DEC. 9 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — In an interview with the Turkish newspaper Hurriyet, Gulnara Karimova, eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, denied she ever wanted to be Uzbekistan’s next president. Analysts have speculated that a recent clampdown on Ms Karimova’s businesses in Uzbekistan was part of a struggle for power.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 10 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Gulnara Karimova, the flamboyant and outlandish eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov, appears to be locked in a power struggle in Uzbekistan.
The authorities have closed down her various businesses and organisations and prosecuted her allies, leaving analysts wondering who her rivals are and who actual has the final say on succession issues.
Certainly not Mr Karimov, an exiled Uzbek human rights activist said. “The National Security Service controls everything in the country,” she said. “If a major power crisis hit the country it (the Uzbek security service) would decide who fills all the leading positions. They know who the next president will be.”
The head of Uzbekistan’s National Security Service is Rustam Inoyatov. He has held the position since 1995, accumulating much power and patronage. Analysts and media have said that Mr Inoyatov may be behind Ms Karimova’s recent problems.
A Central Asia security analyst also said that various external players may be able to influence who became Uzbekistan’s next president.
“Uzbekistan has significant gas and oil supply commitments to China, so Beijing will want to make sure that the next head of Uzbek state would not only honour those commitments but will also remain in the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation,” he said.
The Kremlin would also try to influence the decision-making process in Uzbekistan, the analyst said, just as it had in Ukraine and Georgia.
Conspicuously absent from this short list are the EU and the US. They just don’t have the same cache in Uzbekistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)
DEC. 4 2013 (The Conway Bulletin) — Concerned that outside forces would influence its reporters, Uzbek state media banned its journalists from travelling abroad and from communicating with foreigners and diplomats in Uzbekistan. Media freedom and human rights lobby groups regularly criticise Uzbekistan as one of the most repressive regimes in the world.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 164, published on Dec. 11 2013)