NOV. 3 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – The Uzbek authorities sentenced three women to jail for spying for neighbouring Tajikistan, local media reported. Relations between Uzbekistan and Tajikistan have been increasingly strained over the past few years, most recently because of Tajik plans to build a dam to generate electricity.
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(News report from Issue No. 112, published on Nov. 9 2012)
OCT. 29 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – It may seem routine between neighbours but a phone call by Tajik president Emmomali Rakhmon to his Uzbek counterpart, Islam Karimov, is significant. The two leaders barely talk and tension between the countries has been rising. Quoting the Tajik presidential press service, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported the telephone call on Oct. 29.
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(News report from Issue No. 111, published on Nov. 2 2012)
NOV. 1 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Gulnara Karimova, daughter of Uzbekistan’s President Islam Karimov, has just launched a perfume and released a new pop song but media reports say that this has not sated her and she is now planning to produce a film. Human rights activists have accused Mr Karimov of various abuses, allegations he denies.
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(News report from Issue No. 111, published on Nov. 2 2012)
OCT. 27 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – It may have been grand-standing, but it was still clear that Tajik president Emomali Rakhmon was pleased.
Mr Rakhmon was opening a new tunnel under a treacherous mountain road that links the north of Tajikistan to the south, when, according to the Russian news agency RIA-Novosti, he said that this was now the shortest route between Asia and Europe.
He was wrong, of course, but the Shakhristan Tunnel is still important. Not only does it improve journey times between Dushanbe, the capital, and Khujand, the second city, but this 5km-long tunnel under the Pamir mountains also underlines China’s commitment to the region.
With funds from Beijing, a Chinese company built the tunnel under a pass which is often closed by snow in the heavy winter months.
Tunnel projects in Tajikistan form just one part of China’s regional strategy. It is investing heavily in Central Asia, building relations by improving transport links, handing out cheap loans and buying up resources.
Across the border from where Mr Rakhmon was admiring his new tunnel, the Uzbek government was also thanking Beijing. It had just borrowed $220m to modernise a heating plant in Tashkent.
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(News report from Issue No. 111, published on Nov. 2 2012)
OCT. 18 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – An appeal court in Uzbekistan upheld accusations from the financial police of tax evasion by UzCarlsberg, the Uzbek subsidiary of Danish brewer Carlsberg, local media reported. Production at UzCarlsberg, which employs 400 people, has ceased since mid-June. Western businesses have previously complained that the Uzbek authorities pressure successful businesses through tax claims.
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(News report from Issue No. 109, published on Oct. 19 2012)
OCT. 11 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Gulnara Karimova, the 40-year-old daughter of Uzbek president, leads a glitzy lifestyle. In September, she released a new pop song and this month she launched her own perfume.
Now, though, Ms Karimova has been indirectly linked to a money laundering investigation in Switzerland that focuses on four Uzbek nationals.
Publicly accessible documents in France, unearthed by Swedish news agency Tidningarnas Telegrambyra and reported on by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, showed that on at least one occasion Ms Karimova co-signed a document for property in the south of France with Alisher Ergashev, one of two Uzbek men detained in Geneva in July by investigators.
It’s also emerged that another of the Uzbek nationals being investigated in Switzerland is Gayane Avakyan, an ethnic Armenian woman closely linked to Ms Karimova.
Aside from the Swiss investigation, Ms Avakyan is also one of the main protagonists in a deal Swedish prosecutors are looking into. In the 2007/8 deal, Swedish telecoms company TeliaSonera bought an Uzbek 3G mobile licence from Gibraltar-registered Takilant. TeliaSonera has denied any wrong-doing, but Swedish prosecutors are investigating irregularities.
Both the investigations, and Ms Karimova’s glitzy lifestyle, continue.
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(News report from Issue No. 109, published on Oct. 19 2012)
OCT. 11 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Uzbek president Islam Karimov continued his diplomatic push across Central Asia and the South Caucasus by visiting Azerbaijani leader Ilham Aliyev. Since the start of September, Mr Karimov, normally one of the more stand-offish regional leaders, has already visited Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 108, published on Oct. 12 2012)
OCT. 2 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Apparently keen to improve relations with neighbours, Uzbek president Islam Karimov made a rare visit to Turkmenistan a month after he had made an equally rare visit to Kazakhstan. Media reported that Mr Karimov and Turkmen president Kurbanguly Berdymukhamedov discussed regional security and transport issues.
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(News report from Issue No. 107, published on Oct. 5 2012)
SEP. 26 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – Prosecutors in Sweden have opened an investigation into alleged bribery and money laundering by TeliaSonera, a Swedish telecoms company with businesses across the world, linked to a deal in 2007 to buy a 3G licence in Uzbekistan, media reported.
In the 2007 deal, TeliaSonera bought the licence from a Gibraltar registered company called Takilant for $352m. The Swedish media has speculated that the real owners of Takilant may have had close links to Islam Karimov, president of Uzbekistan.
TeliaSonera, in which the Swedish government owns 37%, has denied the allegations. The media, though, reported that the company’s CEO, Lars Nyberg, has said he doesn’t know whether people other than the nominal owner of Talikant benefited from the deal or how it came to own the 3G licence in the first place. Swedish media focused on TeliaSonera’s role in the saga, but it also throws more light on how business is conducted in Uzbekistan. And it’s not pretty.
Russian mobile operator MTS is currently fighting allegations of tax avoidance in Uzbekistan and, separately, Swiss authorities have opened a money laundering investigation into four unnamed Uzbek citizens. Corruption allegations over the TeliaSonera/Takilant deal add to this picture.
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(News report from Issue No. 106, published on Sep. 28 2012)
SEP. 17 2012 (The Conway Bulletin) – A court in Uzbekistan has sentenced four managers at Uzdunrobita, a subsidiary of Russian mobile operator MTS, to up to 2-1/2 years in prison, media quoted MTS as saying. Uzbek officials have confiscated Uzdunrobita’s property and cancelled its licence. They said Uzdunrobita has avoided paying taxes and broken its contract.
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(News report from Issue No. 105, published on Sep. 21 2012)