Field Reports

On October 23, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov announced a so-called presidential plan including a five year economic plan for 2012-2016 and vowed to invest 200 billion manats (US$ 70 billion) into the state and private sectors of the economy to turn Turkmenistan into an industrial state. The plan also aims to bring new reforms in the country’s educational, agricultural and energy sectors. Berdimuhamedov unveiled the presidential plan at an annual meeting of the Council of Elders, an advisory body that meets annually and has no legal authority except for lavishing the president’s new policy initiatives and decisions with praise.

On November 9, Tbilisi’s City Court ruled to release the Chief of the Joint Staff of Georgia’s armed forces Giorgi Kalandadze and the commander of the 4th army brigade Zurab Shamatava on a GEL 20,000 bail each. However, President Mikheil Saakashvili’s long-time ally and once influential government member Bachana Akhalaia was placed in pre-trial detention.

In early November, the American non-governmental human rights organization “Responsible Sourcing Network”, which aims at uniting people for the eradication of slavery in the modern world as well as promoting sustainable development and fair business, announced that more than a hundred world brand companies boycotted the use of Uzbek cotton and textile for their produce. According to the company’s representative, this is an unprecedented number of companies that have joined the campaign against the use of child labor for picking cotton in Uzbekistan, which provides momentum for the campaign as a whole. Some sources suggest, however, that the Uzbek authorities will not suffer serious losses from the boycott as their produce can be easily directed eastwards.

In late October the Russian publishing house Vzglyad v Budushee (Look into the future) based in St. Petersburg issued a handbook for foreign labor migrants in Russia. On the first page of the handbook, labor migrants are pictured as tools – a broom, a paint roller, a brush and a spatula, while Russian citizens look like normal people – a policeman, a doctor, a guide, etc. Such depiction of the labor migrants was considered humiliating by human rights activists in the major countries of origin for labor migrants, and Tajikistan was among the first to express concerns. The issue received wide publicity in local and regional media, and the publishing house currently undergoes checking by the Prosecutor General.

On October 25, Georgia’s parliament approved Bidzina Ivanishvili as prime minister with 88 votes against 54. On the same ballot, parliament passed the government’s new composition and its program, envisaging comprehensive shifts in key policy areas that involve constitutional and structural changes.

In late October, Kazakhstan’s recently appointed Minister of Economic Development and Trade Yerbolat Dossayev informed the country’s Parliament that the Kazakh economy was expected to grow by 5.4 percent in 2012, which is 0.6 percent lower than the previous forecast. According to the minister, the unfavorable situation on world commodities markets had led to the weakening of demand for Kazakhstan’s energy exports and encouraged the Government to temper its optimism. At the same time, Kazakhstan’s southern neighbor, Uzbekistan, was credited with a 7.5 percent economic growth rate by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development whose July 2012 forecast had been reconsidered in favor of better expectations. In this context, the continuous inflow of foreign direct investment to Kazakhstan is decidedly not sufficient to offset the currently observed slowdown of its economic and industrial development as well as the country’s unabated dependence on raw materials.

The leadership of British Petroleum (BP) in the international consortium developing the largest oil field in the Caspian Sea faces strong criticism from Azerbaijan’s government for a fall in crude oil output which has created a US$ 8 billion hole in state revenues. Azerbaijan’s economy is strongly dependent on energy exports and falls in production have a significant impact on the country’s growth as well as the mood of voters ahead of the 2013 presidential elections.

The exercises of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) Rapid reaction Forces (RRF) in Armenia may be a milestone for the organization’s international recognition. The war games demonstrated that the CSTO has grown into a Russia-led military bloc, which is capable of anti-terror operations on the territories of its member countries as well as abroad.

A video circulating in social networks allegedly shows a member of parliament from Azerbaijan’s ruling New Azerbaijan (YAP) party attempting to sell a seat in parliament. The video posted on You Tube on September 25 displays MP Gular Ahmadova discussing with the former rector of Azerbaijan International University, Elshad Abdullayev, the size of a bribe required for securing him a seat in parliament.

On October 8, the city court of Aktau announced its final conclusions in a months-long trial initiated by Kazakhstan’s prosecution against Vladimir Kozlov, leader of the unregistered political party Alga and two other civil rights activists. The official verdict states that Vladimir Kozlov shall be sentenced to seven and a half years in prison, while his personal property becomes subject to legal seizure. These assets include three personal vehicles, several land plots, as well as all of Alga’s regional offices located in 14 different cities across the country and officially registered in Kozlov’s name.