Field Reports

One month before the early parliamentary elections in Kazakhstan scheduled for January 15 and 16, 2012, the majority of the country’s political parties have already started intensive preparations in a bid to ensure their representation in the Kazakh Parliament’s lower chamber, the Majilis (comprised of 107 deputies). The NurOtan, which is officially headed by President Nursultan Nazarbayev, was the first among forefront political organizations to divulge its list of candidates consisting of 127 persons. Out of these, 48 were deputies in the Majilis’ previous legislature and will most likely be reelected into office. The remaining 79 candidates have very different backgrounds varying from former ministers and cabinet-level officials (such as the chairman of the Agency for protection of competition) to regional governors, to representatives of sports and culture (the head of Kazakhstan’s national cycling team among them).

Azerbaijan’s relations with neighboring Iran have taken a turn for the worse due to growing tension around Iran’s nuclear program. The recent death of writer Rafiq Tagi, who Iranian media has termed a “Salman Rushdie of Azerbaijan”, has fuelled mutual anti-propaganda between two countries. 

The former de facto President of South Ossetia Eduard Kokoity and the opposition leader Alla Dzhioyeva struck a deal on December 9 to put an end to the 10-day post-election turmoil sparked by the decision by the region’s Supreme Court to annul Dzhioyeva’s victory over the Kremlin’s favored candidate Anatoly Bibilov. The agreement, signed in the presence of a Kremlin official, foresees the interim leadership of Prime Minister Vadim Brovtsev before the inauguration of a new president, and Dzhioyeva’s participation in the 2012 repeat polls, scheduled for March 25. The Supreme Court previously banned Dzhioyeva from running in the March elections. Further, as part of the agreement, Kokoity along with the chief prosecutor, the chairman of the Supreme Court and other key officials must have left their posts.

On December 5, the Uzbek Senate adopted a law “On introducing an amendment to article 90 of the Constitution of the Republic of Uzbekistan,” which regulates the presidential term. It was proposed as a legislative initiative by Uzbekistan’s president and envisions reducing the presidential term from seven to five years. As the press service of the Uzbek Parliament reported, the senators note that the amendment “reflects the objective reality, logic and sequence of the ongoing reforms in the country, corresponds to the requirement of the implemented Concept for further strengthening democratic reforms and formation of civil society in the country, and the practice which has formed in most of the developed democratic states of the world.” However, local observers distrust the good intentions of undemocratic Uzbek authorities and speculate about other reasons for such a measure.

On November 17, a railway bridge between the Galaba and Amuzang stations in Uzbekistan exploded. The location of the explosion is in Surkhandarya oblast, between the Uzbek city of Termez and the Tajik city Kurgan-Tyube, not far from Uzbekistan’s borders with Afghanistan and Tajikistan. Due to the destruction of the bridge, a large number of wagons carrying goods headed for Tajikistan are stuck in Uzbekistan. A governmental committee has been organized to investigate the causes of the incident. According to local mass media, the explosion is considered to be a terrorist act. However, some local observers have doubts about this version as Uzbek authorities keep the site closed to the public and make little progress in restoring the bridge and the operation of the railway.

NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen and North Atlantic Council (NAC) diplomats visited Georgia on November 9-10. The visit incited Tbilisi’s hopes that the next Alliance summit will bring Georgia closer to NATO. Although Rasmussen appraised the NATO-Georgia partnership as “very special” and “solid,” he could not specify when Georgia may expect membership in the organization.

On November 22, a court in Tajikistan released two foreign pilots, including a Russian citizen, who two weeks earlier had been sentenced to lengthy terms in jail. The release of Vladimir Sadovnichy, a Russian citizen, and Alexei Rudenko, an Estonian citizen, has been prompted by an unusually strong backlash from Moscow that threatened to ruin Tajikistan’s economy.

Although Armenia has no energy resources of its own, it is rich in electricity-producing capacities and other energy infrastructure and is therefore anxious to become a regional hub in the operation of energy transmission and transportation, as well as in transportation of goods. In energy programs, it enjoys the support of two major energy producers, Russia and Iran.

On November 16, Kazakhstan’s President Nursultan Nazarbayev signed a decree dissolving the lower chamber of the country’s Parliament, thus responding to the request of a group of 53 Majilis deputies submitted a week earlier. As the representatives of this initiative group explained during a press conference, such a move had become inevitable in order to adjust to current international circumstances, with the second wave of the economic crisis threatening to bring down Kazakhstan’s financial system and cause irreparable damage to its economic prospects. The deputies believe that the dissolution of the Majilis will enable the entry into Parliament of a second party whose role would be to reinvigorate political debate and present original solutions that the presidential party might have previously missed or ignored. Finally, those who signed the petition are convinced that only a refreshed Majilis will be up to the task of bringing about necessary changes provided for in the Program for industrial and innovative development whose implementation is to be finalized by 2014.

Georgia and Russia signed a bilateral agreement finalizing Russia’s entry terms in the World Trade Organization (WTO) in Geneva on November 9. Tbilisi labeled the deal as a “diplomatic victory” for Georgia. Moscow also hailed the agreement, terming it a “huge success” driving Georgia in the “right direction.”