FEB. 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — In Uzbekistan, temperatures have dropped to nearly minus 30 Celsius, media reported. Shops have closed and the streets are empty as people choose to stay at home to try and keep warm. The extreme cold has put huge pressure on resources. Some schools and hospitals have shut.
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(News report from Issue No. 171, published on Feb. 12 2014)
FEB. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The US has extended military aid to Uzbekistan despite human rights concerns, eurasianet.org reported. Over the last couple of years, Uzbekistan has become a key NATO ally helping it to extract kit out of neighbouring Afghanistan. The US Congress has to agree on military support for Uzbekistan every six months.
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(News report from Issue No. 171, published on Feb. 12 2014)
FEB. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The row over a scheduled visit to Prague by Uzbek president Islam Karimov has intensified.
The day after receiving a letter signed by a group of human rights activists calling for the visit to be cancelled, Czech President Milos Zeman posted a response on the internet. And he didn’t pull any punches.
He accused human rights lobbyists of hypocrisy and of not understanding the geo-political nature and the niceties of diplomatic relations.
“I wish you had more awareness and less hypocrisy,” he wrote after explaining that the invitation for Mr Karimov to visit Prague between Feb. 20-22 was because the Czech president in 2004 had been invited to Tashkent.
Mr Zeman also said that Uzbekistan had recently held talks with the EU and was helping NATO extract its military kit out of neighbouring Afghanistan.
All this may be true but it won’t placate the human rights lobby which considers Mr Karimov leader of one of the most repulsive regimes in the world. They accuse him of torture and locking up his enemies.
Mr Karimov’s trip to Prague is set to be, politically, explosive.
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(News report from Issue No. 171, published on Feb. 12 2014)
FEB. 6 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The falling value of the Russian rouble is decreasing the amount of cash that Uzbeks working in Russia are able to wire home, media reported. Like other Emerging Markets currencies, the rouble has been slipping back against a strengthening dollar over the past few months.
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(News report from Issue No. 171, published on Feb. 12 2014)
FEB. 5 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan’s state-owned Uzavtoprom exported 90,800 cars in 2013, official media reported, up around 20% from 2012. Uzbekistan’s car manufacturing sector is increasingly important to the country. It mainly exports to Russia, Kazakhstan, Ukraine and Turkmenistan.
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(News report from Issue No. 171, published on Feb. 12 2014)
FEB. 11 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — A gas explosion in an apartment building in the town of Navoi in central Uzbekistan killed six people and injured seven, media reported. The deaths reflect the dilapidated state of Uzbekistan’s infrastructure. Media reported that residents had been trying to heat their apartments from their gas cookers.
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(News report from Issue No. 171, published on Feb. 12 2014)
FEB. 9 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — From July 1 2014, Uzbek citizens will only be able to travel abroad with a newly issued biometric passport, media reported. Biometric passports are being introduced across the world but the issue is probably more sensitive in Uzbekistan where controls on the movement of people are more stringent.
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Copyright ©The Conway Bulletin — all rights reserved
(News report from Issue No. 171, published on Feb. 12 2014)
FEB. 12 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — The extreme cold weather that has gripped Central Asia is disrupting life in Uzbekistan.
Media reports have said that the temperature in Uzbekistan has dropped to minus 28 Celsius, far below the average for this time of year. Some reports have also suggested that the authorities may impose a state of emergency.
Market stall owners have closed their stores, farmers have moved their livestock into barns and taxis are charging excessive prices for short journeys. Very few people are on the street.
“Commerce is at a standstill right now,” the uznews.net website quoted a market stall owner in the town of Qarshi in southern Uzbekistan as saying.
In Karakalpakstan, western Uzbekistan, reports said some of the region’s hospitals are struggling on without power supply because it’s been too difficult to send in supplies of oil or coal.
But there is also a geo-political edge to these cold snaps that means observers of Uzbekistan should pay more attention.
Central Asia’s energy distribution system is complex and interwoven. Uzbekistan supplies parts of southern Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan in a swap scenario but the authorities there have reported a drop in gas supplies since the cold snap took hold. They have said that the Uzbeks are keeping back supplies for their own use.
If the cold snap is prolonged the drop in gas supplies to neighbouring countries could also increase tension across the region.
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(News report from Issue No. 171, published on Feb. 12 2014)
JAN. 29 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Police in Moscow arrested a French businessman linked to Gulnara Karimova, the eldest daughter of Uzbek President Islam Karimov.
The Frenchman was named as 48-year-old Eric Cokini. Reports said he was arrested at an airport in Moscow.
Mr Cokini had worked in Uzbekistan for several years, the AFP news agency reported. One of his roles included importing perfume for shops run by Ms Karimova but he is thought to have had far wider and deeper links with her businesses.
A photo dated from 2010 on Ms Karimova’s website showed the pair chatting.
The Russian interior ministry said the Uzbek authorities wanted to charge Mr Cokini with a series of financial crimes including money laundering, tax evasion and theft. They have asked the Russian authorities to extradite him to Tashkent.
His potential extradition could trigger an international row. Information on Mr Cokini and his links to Ms Karimova is still patchy but his arrest is more evidence that people and businesses connected to her are coming under increasing pressure.
Once thought of as a potential presidential successor, Ms Karimova is locked in a battle for influence against her detractors in Uzbekistan. These are mainly people linked to the rival Samarkand clan.
And she doesn’t seem to be winning. This is bad news for her allies, including Mr Cokini.
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(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)
FEB. 4 2014 (The Conway Bulletin) — Uzbekistan temporarily reduced gas supplies to southern Kazakhstan leaving thousands of people in the south Kazakh city of Shymkent unable to heat their homes or cook, local media reported. Uzbek officials said pipeline repair work had caused the gas supply shortage. Central Asia’s energy system is complex and interconnected.
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(News report from Issue No. 170, published on Feb. 5 2014)