25 January 2012 News Digest

Kyrgyzstan to get 1 mln tonnes of fuel and lubricants from Russia, duty-free in 2012
12 January
Russia is expected to ship 1 million tonnes of fuel and lubricants to Kyrgyzstan, duty-free, the head of Kyrgyzstan's Oil Traders Association, Zhumakadyr Akeneyev, told Interfax. "Kyrgyzstan's estimates its need in fuel this year at 1.15 million tonnes. Russia was prepared to provide 650,000 tonnes. The parties agreed on 1 million tonnes in talks," he said. Akeneyev also said that the Association and the Agriculture and Land Reclamation Ministry are expected to sign a deal on fuel supplies needed to run the spring sowing campaign. Russia and Kyrgyzstan signed an indefinite agreement on duty-free shipments of fuel and lubricants in March 2010 and they have only been adjusting the figures since then. Russia is the main supplier of petroleum products to Kyrgyzstan. Another 5%-7% arrives from Kazakhstan. (Interfax)

Infor-war waged against Nazarbayev –advisor
12 January
An information and ideological war is being waged against Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, said Nazarbayev's political advisor Yermukhamet Yertysbayev. "I have been saying all along that a real information and ideological war is being waged against the president. The website Respublika and the K+ television channel are at the forefront of this war, and they openly called for a 'national revolt' in their live coverage of the unrest in Zhanaozen," Yertybayev said in an interview with the Svoboda Slova (Speech Freedom) newspaper, published on Thursday. Reports in the Russian printed press were "extremely biased," too, sometimes, he also said. "One had the impression that the decision was made to neutralize the Bolotnaya Square protests and to overshadow them by a hotter theme, even though related to Kazakhstan," Yertysbayev said.But he agued that the unrest in Zhanaozen will not have a negative impact on the governing party Nur Otan's positions ahead of the parliamentary elections. "How will the Zhanaozen events impact the January 15 elections? The Zhanaozen factor is rallying citizens around the president. I have no doubts about that at all," he said. (Interfax)

Ex-socar boss sees low Nabucco role
12 January
A former president of a state oil company in Azerbaijan said the number of gas pipelines planned through Turkey could diminish the role of Nabucco. European consumers are eager to add diversity to a natural gas market that depends heavily on Russia. The Nabucco natural gas pipeline through Turkey is the most ambitious of the non-Russian gas transit projects outlined in Europe's so-called Southern Corridor. Nabucco would get some of its natural gas from offshore fields in Azerbaijan. Sabit Bagirov, a former president of the State Oil Co. of the Azerbaijan Republic, told the Interfax news agency plans between Russia and Turkey could diminish Nabucco's role. In December, SOCAR and Turkish pipeline company BOTAS signed a memorandum of understanding to build the $5 billion Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline through Turkey. "With the implementation of the Trans-Anatolian gas pipeline, the necessity to construct the Turkish section of Nabucco will disappear," Bagirov told the news service. SOCAR holds a majority interest in its consortium with BOTAS, though Baku said others were welcome to join. Nabucco directors note the project is based on a multisourced concept, which they said expands Europe's natural gas options substantially. (UPI)

Ivanishvili Plans TV Channel
14 January
A company co-owned by wife of billionaire opposition politician Bidzina Ivanishvili took over management of a firm which owns cable and satellite broadcast license and plans to launch a new TV channel. In late December Aktsept LLC in which Ivanishvili’s wife Ekaterine Khvedelidze owns 80% of shares took the management rights of Igrika, which obtained cable broadcast license from Georgian National Communications Commission in September and then satellite braodcast lisence in December. Igrika was founded by Ilia Kikabidze, who is now director of Tbilisi-based Maestro TV station. One of Ivanishvili’s spokespersons, Nona Kandiashili, has confirmed that Aktsept LLC had a plan to launch TV channel. She said the date of launch and other details would be announced by the planned channel’s management. “I am sure that it will be a TV channel with absolutely independent news programming. The viewers will judge it themselves,” she told Civil.ge on Saturday. According to the agreement with Igrika, Aktsept took over the management rights till December 31, 2013 and it will receive as a fee 15% of the channel’s annual profit. Reports about Ivanishvili planning a television channel first emerged last month when the Georgian daily, Rezonansi, reported that the billionaire’s team was already in the process of recruiting staff. In one of his first written statement released after announcing about his political plans, Ivanishvili offered owners of TV televisions with news broadcasting license that he was ready to buy TV channel for a price three times higher than its market value and to return it back to its previous owner after two years for a symbolic price of GEL 1. On January 6 executives of the companies from Ivanishvili’s Cartu Group met with representatives of foreign diplomatic missions in Tbilisi and complained that shipments for their companies were subject of thorough scrutiny at customs, not seen before Ivanishvili’s decision to go into politics. They said that some of the equipment was even “deliberately damaged” and presented at the meeting results of examination of some damaged cargo, among them of eight LiveU’s  portable video-over-cellular transmitters. Ivanishvili’s spokesperson, however, did not confirm that transmitters were intended for the planned TV channel. (Civil Georgia)

Seven candidates to run against Turkmen President
18 January
Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov will face seven candidates in a presidential election next month, which is being seen as a formality for the all-powerful leader of the Central Asian country. The candidate list published on January 18 by the Central Election Commission includes nominees drawn from a variety of government ministries and state-owned companies, all of which have voiced their full support for the policies of the president. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has declined to send an observer mission to the February 12 election, citing the lack of political competition and limited freedoms. Berdymukhammedov became president in 2007, after the death of authoritarian leader Saparmurat Niyazov. (RFE/RL)

Apartment Complex for Russian Border Guards in Sokhumi
18 January
An apartment complex for the border guard forces of Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) and their families stationed in breakaway Abkhazia is being built in Sokhumi. After completion later this year it will be the largest apartment complex built for the Russian border guards in Abkhazia, according to the January 18 report by Abkhaz news agency Apsnipress. The complex, which is built by the Sochi-based construction firm, will include six apartment buildings and an administrative building. Since signing an agreement with Sokhumi “on joint efforts in protecting Abkhaz state border” in April, 2009, Russia has built four settlements for its border guard units in the breakaway region. The largest of them is located in the village of Otobaia in the predominantly ethnic Georgian populated Gali district not far from the administrative border. The settlement with an area of about five hectares involves four-storey apartment buildings with total of fifty flats for Russian border guards and their families. Three other settlements are of smaller size; one is located in the villages of Pichori in Gali district; another one in Okumi in the Ochamchire district and the third one is in New Athos (Akhali Atoni). At the time of signing of the agreement on border protection in 2009 Abkhaz officials reported that about 1,340 Russian border guards on top of Russian army troops would be stationed in the breakaway region. (Civil Georgia)

Kazakhstan’s PM vows political liberalization
20 January
Kazakhstan's long-serving prime minister said Friday that his Central Asian country will move gradually toward greater political liberalization and downplayed international criticism of this week's parliamentary election. Karim Masimov spoke shortly after newly elected deputies assembled for the first time since the election that saw the ruling Nur Otan party's control of the Majlis, or lower house, fall from 100 percent to 89 percent. Deputies from three parties were sworn in at an official ceremony overseen by the oil-rich former Soviet nation's powerful veteran president, Nursultan Nazarbayev. Monitors from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe expressed substantial misgivings over the conduct of Sunday's election, saying the vote count lacked transparency. Masimov said in an interview with The Associated Press that he respected the views of the OSCE and that Kazakhstan would continue working to improve standards. "For the next election we will make the necessary steps to be close to international standards, but at the same time I, as the prime minister, strongly believe that we did have free-and-fair elections," he said, speaking in English. Nur Otan's commanding victory in the elections gave it control of 83 of the lower house's 107 seats. The pro-business Ak Zhol and the People's Communist Party have eight and seven deputies, respectively. Nine deputies were appointed by a presidential advisory body. The more militant wings of the opposition insist they have been denied a fair attempt at gaining even a foothold in parliament. In its first session, parliament reconfirmed Masimov as prime minister, putting an end to speculation that Nazarbayev might appoint a new head of government. Masimov has held the country's No. 2 post since 2007, making him the longest-serving prime minister since Kazakhstan gained independence in 1991. An urbane polyglot with a command of several languages — including English, Chinese and Turkish — Masimov is liked by international investors and widely credited with steering the country through a downturn caused by the global economic crisis. (AP)

Tajikistan ‘ready to help’ Russians find Tajik dissident’s attacker
21 January
Tajik Interior Minister Ramazon Rakhimov says Tajik investigators would assist Russian officials in investigating an attack against a well-known Tajik dissident in Moscow, RFE/RL's Tajik Service reports. Lieutenant General Rakhimov told journalists in Dushanbe on January 20 that "at this point there is no official request from Russian officials to help in the investigation, but if such a request is made, we are fully ready to assist in that matter."
Rakhimov said he learned about the attack against Tajik government critic Dodojon Atovulloev from the media.
He added that Atovulloev's statement saying that the attack against him might have been masterminded by people in the Tajik government is "his personal opinion and has no basis in fact." Atovulloev, who lives permanently in Moscow, was attacked by an unknown man with a knife on January 12. He was brought with multiple stab wounds to hospital at Moscow's Sklifosovsky Medical Center, where he is currently being treated. Atovulloev, 56, is well known for his articles harshly criticizing the Tajik government, President Emomali Rahmon, and members of his family. Atovulloev left Tajikistan in December 1992. He has since lived mainly in Moscow, but spent one year in Germany as well. He has remained active as a journalist critical of the Tajik authorities throughout. (RFE/RL)

Tajikistan antidrug officials arrested for narcotics smuggling
23 January
Tajikistan has arrested several high-ranking antidrug officials for their alleged involvement in narcotics trafficking.
Among them is Faridun Umarov, the head of the antidrug department in the southern Farkhor district, which borders Afghanistan. Umarov is the brother of the first deputy head of the State Committee for National Security, Mansur Umarov. Also arrested were the chief of the Interior Ministry's antinarcotics department and a colonel overseeing the antidrug unit of the Dushanbe city's interior affairs department. Umarov was the leader of the "organized crime group," which allegedly involved several other officers from antidrug departments and security services in the southern Khatlon province. Khatlon is a major drug route for narcotics coming from Afghanistan. An unnamed official told RFE/RL that arrests were made earlier this month. (RFE/RL)

Kyrgyz authorities to forcibly feed inmates on Hunger strike
23 January
Kyrgyz authorities say they have decided to forcibly feed prison inmates who have been on hunger strike over conditions at a handful of detention facilities all over the country. RFE/RL's Kyrgyz Service reports that State Penitentiary Service officials announced that the "forced feeding" means a transfusion of glucose solution via an intravenous system to protesting inmates whose health is in immediate danger. Thousands of inmates in Kyrgyzstan’s 13 jails and detention centers have been on a hunger strike since January 17, a day after security forces violently quelled a prisoner riot in a Bishkek detention center, allegedly killing one and wounding dozens. It is still unclear what sparked the riot and clashes in the detention center. Kyrgyz Ombudsman Tursunbek Akun has said the inmates’ rights were violated and they were severely beaten. (RFE/RL)

Uzbek refugee arrested on terror charges in Chicago
23 January
An accused member of an Islamic group that is suspected of plotting attacks in Germany, Turkey, Afghanistan and Uzbekistan has been arrested and charged with providing support to foreign terrorists. Jamshid Muhtorov, 35, an Uzbekistani refugee who resides in suburban Denver, was taken into custody on Saturday at O'Hare International Airport in Chicago by FBI agents, federal authorities said on Monday. A criminal complaint charging him with providing and attempting to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization was unsealed in Denver on Monday shortly after Muhtorov made his initial court appearance in Chicago. Court documents filed in the case said Muhtorov was heading overseas to fight on behalf of the Islamic Jihad Union, a Pakistan-based extremist group that opposes secular rule in the U.S.-backed former Soviet republic of Uzbekistan and seeks to replace the current regime there with a government based on Islamic law. The public defender assigned to Muhtorov at his court appearance could not immediately be reached for comment. An FBI affidavit for Muhtorov's arrest said German authorities in 2007 disrupted an IJU plot and arrested three operatives of the group targeting unidentified facilities with explosives. It said Turkish authorities separately seized weapons and detained "extremists with ties to the IJU." The court affidavit also said the organization claimed responsibility for attacks in 2008 that targeted coalition forces in Afghanistan, including a suicide attack against an unidentified U.S. military post. In addition, the group conducted simultaneous suicide bombings in 2004 of U.S. and Israeli embassies, as well as of a Uzbekistani government office, all in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, FBI agent Donald Hale wrote in the FBI affidavit. Federal prosecutors said Muhtorov's arrest, capping a "long-term investigation," highlights "the continued interest of extremists residing in the United States to join and support overseas terrorists." If convicted of the charge against him, Muhtorov faces up to 15 years in prison. The FBI began monitoring his telephone calls and email messages last March, including a conversation in July in which he told his daughter he would never see her again "but if she was a good Muslim girl he will see her in heaven," Hale's affidavit said. (Reuters)

Afghan avalanche death toll during past week rises to 46
24 January
Officials in Afghanistan say heavy snow and avalanches in the country's far northeast have killed at least 46 people during the past week. Afghan Presdent Hamid Karzai has declared an emergency in the mountainous northeastern province of Badakhshan and promised a relief fund of $160,000. A statement from Karzai's office on January 24 quoted provincial officials who updated the death toll and said 60 people have also been injured by recent avalanches. Afghanistan's harsh winters and mountainous terrain make avalanches an annual hazard. Last year, at least 171 people died in an avalanche at the Salang Pass -- the major highway route through the Hindu Kush mountains linking Kabul with the north of the country. (RFE/RL)

Uzbekistan no fun of Valentine’s day
24 January
Authorities in Uzbekistan are, apparently, unwilling to give love a chance. The Russian news agency RIA-Novosti cited several local media in the Central Asian nation reporting Tuesday that Uzbekistan has canceled concerts and other events for Valentine's Day. Instead, residents in the capital of Tashkent can enjoy readings of poems by Mughal emperor Babur, who died in the 16th century. The unofficial ban on romance-related festivities echoes long-standing antagonism in Uzbekistan toward the holiday. Last year, the Turkiston newspaper described Valentine's Day as the work of "forces with evil goals bent on putting an end to national values." Although most people across former Soviet Central Asia are Muslim, many enjoy celebrating what is nominally a Christian feast. (AP)

Azerbaijan company says it’s planning world’s tallest building
24 January
A property developer in oil-rich Azerbaijan says the company is aiming to construct the world's tallest building on a chain of artificial islands in the Caspian Sea. Kana Guluzade, marketing director of the Avesta company, said Tuesday the plans for the complex include a business center soaring to 1050 meters (3,645 feet), which would be 27 percent taller than the current champ, the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The tower initially had been planned at 560 meters (1,837 feet), he said. The project is to include 41 islands about 25 kilometers (15 miles) south of the capital Baku, including hotels and apartment buildings. Guluzade said construction of the complex, called Khazar Islands, is to begin at the end of 2013. (AP)

Medvedev, Ankvab Tour New Border Crossing Infrastructure
24 January
Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev, accompanied by Abkhaz leader Alexander Ankvab, toured a newly reconstructed border crossing point with Abkhazia at Psou river, which has increased capacity capable to handle larger traffic to put an end to long queues especially during summer holiday season, Russian and Abkhaz news agencies reported. “It has been constructed quickly; everything is in civilized way, corresponding to the requirements, including those of WTO,” Medvedev was quoted by Russian and Abkhaz news agency as telling Ankvab, while touring the new infrastructure at border crossing point “Adler” on the Russian side of the border not far from Sochi. Medvedev also said that focus should be made on infrastructure capable to handle increased flow of traffic across the border. Ankvab responded that border crossing procedures would be carried out much faster and there would be no long queues anymore. Part of the new border crossing point, designed to handle traffic of vehicles, which also includes a new bridge, will be opened on January 25 and a separate part of the crossing point for pedestrians will be put into operation in February. The renovated border crossing point includes six lanes for vehicles; three separate lanes for cargo trucks and one for tourist buses. It is designed to handle at least 1,500 vehicles, including 150 cargo trucks, per day, according to Itar-Tass news agency. (Civil Georgia)

President not to Appeal Court Ruling Over Citizenship of Ivanishvili's Wife
24 January
President’s administration has no intention to appeal a ruling of Tbilisi City Court ordering restoration of Georgian citizenship to billionaire opposition politician Bidzina Ivanishvili’s wife, President Saakashvili’s spokesperson, Manana Manjgaladze, said on January 24. On December 27, the Tbilisi City Court partly held a presidential order number 602 stripping Ivanishvili of his Georgian citizenship, but in the same judgment the court also said the part of the same presidential order, which revoked citizenship of Ivanishvili’s wife Ekaterine Khvedelidze, was illegal. Earlier this month, when it was not yet clear whether the president’s office was going to appeal the ruling or not to the higher court, Khvedelidze requested the Tbilisi City Court to order an immediate enforcement of its judgment on the grounds that she was intending to run for the parliamentary elections in October. Khvedelidze cited that in case of appealing the ruling by the president’s office the court proceedings could have lasted for over a year effectively barring her to run for parliament. Ivanishvili tries to regain Georgian citizenship for himself through naturalization. He submitted relevant papers to the authorities on January 5. According to the law on citizenship, the authorities have maximum of three months to respond to the application on citizenship. Ivanishvili said on January 15, that he was sure he would regain his Georgian citizenship allowing him to personally establish and lead a political party, but if not he was considering as a plan B that his wife would do that on his behalf. Also this month, Ekaterine Khvedelidze became an owner of a company, which holds a license to carry out news broadcasting via cable and satellite. Ivanishvili’s press office said on January 20, that the new TV channel would be launched in the nearest future. If Ivanishvili will have to put in practice his plan B and assign her wife in charge of establishing his planned political party, Ekaterine Khvedelidze, will have to formally distance from TV channel, as law bans a political party official to at the same time be a holder of broadcast license. (Civil Georgia)

Kyrgyzstan prison protest: Inmates sew lips together
25 January
More than 1,300 Kyrgyz prisoners have sewn their lips together as part of an ongoing protest at poor living conditions, say officials. Nearly 7,000 are already on hunger strike. Their latest move came in response to an official decision to force-feed them, reports said. The protest follows a riot last week in which at least one person was killed. "They are demanding that state prison authorities and guards stop beatings," a human rights official said. "They are worried that if they stop their hunger strike they will be beaten again," Tursunbek Akun said. He described the situation of the protesting prisoners as "catastrophic." But authorities say the protest has been orchestrated by criminal gang leaders who oppose new tighter regulations inside prisons, reports the BBC's Central Asia correspondent Rayhan Demytrie. Hundreds of prisoners have joined the latest protest, which according to reports involves sewing their lips together in such a way that only liquids can be consumed. One of the prisoners' demands is said to be the lifting of restrictions on their movement, but this demand was dismissed by the head of the penitentiary services, Sheishenbek Baizakov. Prisoners would no longer "be able to make fools of the guards", he said at a news conference in the capital Bishkek, according to AFP news agency. "Let them all sew shut their mouths." Mr Baizakov's resignation has been demanded by prisoners' relatives, who have been picketing the parliament building every day since 16 January - the day of the deadly prison riot said to have triggered the protest. Kyrgyzstan is a former Soviet nation of 5.5 million which hosts a US air base key to US operations in nearby Afghanistan. Its jails are notoriously overcrowded and teeming with disease, reports say. (BBC)

Kazakh Politician Flees country, fearing arrest
25 January
The former leader of a Kazakh political party that was barred from taking part in parliamentary elections earlier this month has left his country for London, fearing possible pressure and arrest by Kazakh authorities. Serikzhan Mambetalin told RFE/RL that he left Kazakhstan last week and does not plan to return in the near future. He said "political oppression against opposition politicians has increased." Mambetalin’s Ruhaniyat (Spiritual Strength) party harshly criticized authorities last month for opening fire at striking oil workers in the southwestern town of Zhanaozen. Several Kazakh opposition activists and a journalist were arrested in recent days for alleged involvement in the fatal clashes in Zhanaozen. On January 25, the New-York-based Human Rights Watch urged Kazakh authorities to stop applying criminal law to crack down on opposition politicians. (RFE/RL)

Russia to double Azerbaijan gas imports
25 January
Azerbaijan said this week it has struck a deal with Moscow to double the amount of Caspian Sea natural gas exported to the Russian energy monopoly Gazprom. The two sides announced the agreement Monday in Krasnaya Polyana, Russia, where Rovnag Abdullayev, president of the State Oil Company of Azerbaijan Republic, or SOCAR, praised the deal as a good one for his country."The agreement was undersigned on very favorable terms for us," Abdullayev told the Azerbaijani Press Agency. The agreement raises the volume of Russia's gas purchases from 1.5 billion to 3 billion cubic meters per year. While negotiating new pipelines to potentially lucrative European consumers, Azerbaijan's biggest gas export customers are currently its closest neighbors. Turkey buys about 6 billion cubic meters annually from SOCAR, followed by Georgia at 2 billion cubic meters and Russia at 1.5 billion cubic meters. The doubling of sales to SOCAR's third-biggest customer was greeted with enthusiasm in Baku, the report said. Abdullayev and Gazprom Chief Executive Officer Alexey Miller noted the deal calls for even more to be delivered in 2013. "We have doubled the purchase of Azerbaijani gas for the second consecutive year," Miller said. Miller agreed Baku was getting a good deal under the arrangement, lauding the agreement's lack of an upper purchase limit and asserting Azerbaijan makes more money selling gas to Russia than to Europe. The potential for much more Caspian Sea gas heading to Russia is also there, Russian trade representative to Azerbaijan Yuri Shedrin said in September. The pipeline between the countries is able to transport up to 5 billion cubic meters of gas per year, he told the Baku news portal News.az."Azerbaijan needs to diversify its export routes since the domestic market cannot consume the extracted amounts. All the same, the Southern Gas Corridor, Nabucco, ITGI and TAP will be launched after 2016," he said, referring to planned pipelines to Europe. The value of gas exports to Russia jumped to $286.6 million during the first seven months of 2011 compared with the year-earlier period -- an increase of $104.1 million. That represented 37.6 percent of Azerbaijan's total exports during the period. (UPI)