IWPR is reporting that Darigha Nazarbaeva, recently divorced from Rakhat Aliev, will be standing down from Parliament. Her father's party, Nur-Otan, sees her as a liability in upcoming August 18 elections. Ms. Nazarbaeva's Asar Party merged into Nur-Otan in 2006. The elections follow a number of Constitutional amendments, previously most famous for introducing a loosening […]
The militarization of petroleum and natural gas. . . I found an interesting news item about Gazprom last week that to me further indicates bonding between the political and economic in Russia's energy front. I lifted this pretty much verbatim from Andrea Mihaelescu at UPI (emphasis added): Russian gas giant Gazprom now has a right […]
Kyrgyzstan's legislature and utility customers are rushing right into a dilemma that marks the plight of many transition states, and indeed, many developing states across the world. The issue at large concerns the development of energy capacity in Kyrgyzstan, for both domestic use and for export. The new energy developments show some of the pain […]
Just like agricultural crops, seminars seem to be popping up everywhere this summer. One of the latest was is Hujand, Tajikistan: on regional cooperation. Feghana.ru interviewed a Russian academic at the conference, and the interview gives a different perspective to Central Asia's politics. For one thing, Professor Plastun talked about terrorism measures in Central Asia, […]
Happy Nadaam, Mongolia! July 5 is the day that Mongolia overthrew its feudal leaders in 1921. And before that, it was a midsummer celebration of the “Three Manly Sports“: (archery, horseback riding, and wrestling). Dateline, Ulaan Bataar: For the first time in six years, China's Foreign Minister visited Mongolia from June 30 through July 2, to […]
The state of Canada is announcing a new USD 30 million grant to help develop and sustain the struggling Afghanistan justice system. This is part of the USD 1.2 billion that Canada has pledged in support of Afghanistan between now and 2011. The Canadian aid has been announced in conjunction with an Afghanistan rule-of-law seminar in Rome. […]
On July 3, the World Bank announced that it would support the development of new telecommunications infrastructure in Afghanistan up to 76.5 million dollars. Previous infrastructure has been bombed, torn up, and salvaged for its wire and other components around the country. The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) is a part of the World Bank […]
Dateline, London: The Kazakhstan Growth Forum was held in London June 27 through 29; according to the lineup, over 600 primarily economic entities attended. These included: the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development; British-Kazakhstan Association leadership; and various oil companies and banks. One bank attending is Raffeissen bank, which is one of the Austrian banks […]
Golden opportunities to make nice with Turkmenistan: New diplomacy: Mr. Berdymukhammedov has decided upon a new spelling (post in Russian) for his name, with one M–Berdymukhamedov, hereinafter. This decision was made to further communication between Kazakhstan and Russia, as the double M appears to be less pronounceable in Kazakh and Russian. Such accommodation is a strong signal that Turkmenistan's […]
Well, I didn't post as much last week as I normally do, and that's because I went to New York to talk to the Foreign Policy Association's Teacher Training Institute about Central Asia. What a great group of teachers! We are used to thinking that politics is something that happens on the world stage, but anyone […]
In a previous short post, I noted that Mr. Niyazov's successor, President Berdymukhammedov, had eschewed the country-wide birthday party that had become customary for Turkmenbashi in favor of more private celebrations. I was particularly pleased that he had separated the public from the private realm. However, it appears that some gaudy and celebratory moves were made […]
Peak of a ten-to-twelve year cycle: Moroccan locusts. Earlier this month, IWPR reported that Tajikistan's efforts against the current anti-locust plague was proving to be only partly successful. 55,000 hectares of grainland has been treated with pesticide, but lacks of equipment have made the effort less than what is needed. The locusts migrate from Afghanistan and […]
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