Tag Archives: Uzbekistan

Germany confirms Uzbek base

JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The German ambassador to Uzbekistan, Neithart Höfer-Wissing, officially confirmed that Germany was going to maintain its military base near Termez, south Uzbekistan, German media reported. A deal was made between the Uzbek and German government last year, although details were kept secret.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

IS plans to attack Uzbekistan

FEB. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The radical group IS plans to attack Uzbekistan, an Uzbek security officer told centralasiaonline.com. Other media outlets broadcast the comments although analysts questioned the motive behind them. The Pentagon, which has agreed to send military kit to Uzbekistan, is linked to the website.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Russia cuts Uzbek/Turkmen gas orders

FEB. 3 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Alexander Medvedev, vice-chairman of Gazprom, Russia’s gas monopoly, said the company would cut gas it buys from Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Mr Medvedev did not specify why Gazprom had cut its orders from Turkmenistan by 60% and from Uzbekistan by 75% but it may be linked to Russia’s economic downturn.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Chinese hunt for shrimps in the Aral Sea

MO’YNOQ/Uzbekistan, FEB. 4 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Sagynbai Murzayev is a strong and gentle Soviet-made man in his 70s. He used to be a fisherman in windswept Mo’ynoq, a town in Karakalpakstan which lies on the remote western fringe of Uzbekistan. Now he works several jobs and witnesses the Chinese influx.

Mo’ynoq once lay on the shores of the Aral Sea. This sea, though, shrunk rapidly because a Soviet irrigation system siphoned off its tributaries’ waters to feed giant cotton fields.

Left behind is a lunar desert of white dunes that locals call Aralkum (Aral’s Sands).

Murzayev works at the local museum of natural history and has witnessed the retreat from the beginning. His father was also a fisherman, his mother worked in a fishery. He now gathers most of his earnings by driving foreign guests to the sea shores. Most of the visitors are Chinese.

Since 2006 an energy consortium led by China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has been exploring oil and gas deposits below the former seabed.

Although national Uzbek publications boast about Karakalpakstan’s growth as an energy-rich region, operations in the Ustyurt Plateau seem, to Murzayev at least, to proceed at a slow pace. The few Chinese workers camping on the shoreline are mainly after a rather different and rather unusual resource for Central Asia — shrimps.

Unexcited, Murzayev looked at a Chinese trawler coming ashore.

“The indiscriminate pillage of natural resources has already been proved to be detrimental for us,” he said. “We need to bring the sea back to life and not to scavenge its dead body.”

In the distance, the town’s crumbling homes are a symbol of the small economic advantages that this uncertain oil and gas bonanza can bring to the region. And all the while the fading memories of the local fisherman who used to work on the lake grow thinner and thinner.
>>By Gianluca Pardelli
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

Karimov hits 77

>>The long-serving leader needs to organise his succession>>

JAN. 30 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Known as Papa, ironically rather than for any genuine paternal feelings, Uzbek President Islam Karimov has just celebrated his 77th birthday.

He has ruled over Uzbekistan for 26 years — he came to power shortly before the 1991 break-up of the Soviet Union — meaning that half of Uzbekistan’s 30m population have only known him as their leader.

But because of Mr Karimov’s age and rumours over his health, it will soon be time to pick a new leader. Mr Karimov himself has kept his opinions close to himself but candidates from within his administration have emerged as contenders, especially now that his eldest daughter, Gulnara, has been taken out of contention.

Top of this list is probably Rustam Inoyatov, the head of Uzbekistan’s secret intelligence service. He is a long serving official and is powerful but he is also a similar age and vintage to Mr Karimov.

There are others too, including finance minister Rustam Azimov and senate head Ilgizar Sobirov. And these options are what pose a real threat to Uzbekistan’s stability and Mr Krimov’s legacy.

For Mr Karimov, or Papa, this year is going to be busy.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 217, published on Feb. 4 2015)

UK envoy questions Uzbek business environment

JAN. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Foreign investment in Uzbekistan is again under the spotlight after Russian news agency Regnum quoted the British ambassador in Tashkent, George Edgar, saying that companies were having to quit the country because of various problems with the business environment.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

US sends more military kit to Uzbekistan

>>US says that the vehicles are non-lethal>>

JAN. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The US Defence Department started delivering to Uzbekistan 300 vehicles designed to withstand ambushes and mines, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Central Asia, Daniel Rosenblum, told the Voice of America’s Uzbek language service.

This is controversial because it appears to go beyond a previous deal made between Washington and Tashkent which said that the United States would deliver non-lethal military equipment to Uzbekistan in exchange for help in withdrawing its forces from Afghanistan.

Ambush-resistant vehicles are, technically, non-lethal but these troop carriers can be mounted with machine-guns and are designed to be used during combat operations.

Uzbekistan has a dubious human rights record and activists have complained heavily about the US’ deal with Uzbekistan. Still, realpolitik meant that the US had to turn to Uzbekistan for help in extracting its kit from Afghanistan. Uzbekistan’s Soviet-era railway system is the quickest and safest way out of the country.

In the interview with Voice of America, Mr Rosenblum said Uzbekistan needed the vehicles to fight Islamic extremist groups and also for counter-narcotic operations.
“We consider them (the vehicles) to be non-lethal. They are intended to protect personnel, crews and passengers in areas that there might be explosive devices, mines, so on,” he said.

“Under those circumstances and for the purposes of counterterrorism and counter-narcotics, we thought that it was a legitimate request and decided to fulfil it.”
Technically Mr Rosenblum may be right. In reality, though, the line between so-called lethal and non-lethal equipment is becoming more blurred with this latest deal.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

Students forced to sign pro-Karimov petitions

JAN. 26 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — Students in Uzbekistan are being forced into signing petitions supporting the presidential candidature of Uzbek leader Islam Karimov, the Uzbek arm of the US-funded Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported. Mr Karimov has said he is going to stand for another term as president in an election in March.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

Uzbek PM likely to retain job after election

JAN. 23 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — The lower house of Uzbekistan’s parliament approved the re-selection of Shavkat Mirziyoyev as an official PM candidate. Mr Mirziyoyev has been PM since 2003 and Uzbek analysts said it was highly likely that he would retain the job after the March presidential election.

ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 216, published on Jan. 28 2015)

Corruption alleged in Uzbek telecoms

JAN. 17 2015 (The Conway Bulletin) — An anonymous whistle-blower in Norway has alleged corruption at Vimpelcom, a telecoms company a third owned by Norwegian Telenor, media reported. Telenor and Vimpelcom deny the allegations. Uzbekistan’s telecoms sector is already mired in an alleged corruption case.
ENDS

(News report from Issue No. 215, published on Jan. 21 2015)