CA/FSU News Round-up

Another round up of the last week's events - better late than never as they say. Only a week to go before I leave for Bishkek, so probably one or two more posts maximum, and then we'll see what happens, at least for the first week or two. Don't forget to check out Registan and Thinking East for more on the region. Anyhow, in no particular order, on to the interesting stuff:

Regional

• RIA Novosti reports that Russia is apparently ready to consider EU proposals regarding "frozen conflicts" in the CIS. Vladimir Chizhov mentioned 2 regional conflicts in Georgia, Nagorno-Karabakh and the stand-off between the self-proclaimed republic of Transdnestr and Moldova.
• Interfax China reports that other SCO members may join Sino-Russian military manouevres according to Russian defence officials, who noted that interest in running joint exercises has come from both within and outside the SCO.
• Energy is the name of the game in Stephen Blank's comment piece for Eurasianet that considers intensifying rivalry between countries such as China and India for Central Asia's oil and gas.
• Muslim Uzbekistan has a thought-provoking piece entitled "From Bishkek to Baghdad, the Caliphate's Time Has Come" looking at US involvement in Muslim countries and prospects for the future.
• AlertNet reports that the threat posed from bird flu in Russia and Kazakhstan has now been greatly reduced thanks to quarantines and colder weather, but warns against complacency.
• The "is it/isn't it?" debate over the CIS's health continues with an opinion article on Russia Profile - diagnosis: not dead - yet...

Kazakhstan

• NGO groups are pleased with a ruling by the Kazakh Constitutional Council that proposed new laws governing NGO activities are unconstitutional, reports AlertNet. However, concerns remain that legislation may be use to control civil society in the republic.
• Xinhua reports that China and Kazakhstan have signed a "protocol of bilateral negotiation" over the latter's accession to the WTO.
• Bill Clinton visited Kazakhstan and met with President Nazarbaev, reports KazInform. During the visit a Memo on entry of Kazakhstan into the Procurement Consortium of Clinton's Foundation was endorsed.

Kyrgyzstan

• Gazeta.kz has a short report on the festivities taking place in Bishkek to celebrate Kyrgyz Independence Day.
• Feliks Kulov has wasted no time getting down to business following confirmation of his appointment as Prime Minister (not without some bureaucratic muppetry) with the introduction of a crisis management agenda to tackle problems including poverty and corruption, according to RIA Novosti.
• Meanwhile Vechernii Bishkek has an interview with Kulov in which he refutes rumours that he and Bakiev are already embroiled in disagreements.
• And continuing the theme of disagreements and the supposed Bakiev/Kulov split, Vechernii Bishkek also has an article entitled "A Disgraced General is More Dangerous Than an Organised Opposition" that focuses on the position of the army, concluding that in a worse case scenario a military junta could result if not managed carefully.
• Development Gateway has posted an article taken from KyrgyzInfo that calls for Kyrgyz politicians to request that the republic's debt to Russia be written off.
• Vechernii Bishkek via Development Gateway ran an article on a 20-year old studentka (female student) at the Kyrgyz-Russian Slavonic University who has won a place to West Point Military Academy in the USA. Good luck to her.
• Also more unusual is a piece from the New York Times on the practice of eating clay, or gulpota, for health benefits in the Naryn region. Even so, there is a serious message to the article considering that pica, as the practice is known in the West, is often seen to be a sign of malnutrition.
• More cheeringly, the Khaleej Times has a report on the training of golden eagles in Kyrgyzstan for hunting.
• Development Gateway has a report on plans to hold a Russian film festival in Bishkek from September 3 to October 3 - good news for those of us looking to do a little culture vulturing whilst in town.
• Less happily for those heading Bishkek-way for the winter, there is still speculation over the energy situation, with Eurasia Daily Monitor noting that Kyrgyzstan currently finds itself in a Catch 22 situation over ensuring sufficient supplies for the winter.
• Ulan Sarbanov, head of the Kyrgyz National Bank, has been charged with abusing his position having alledgedly given ex-president Akaev USD 480,000 in 1999, reports monstersandcritics.com. Apparently he is currently under house arrest.
• Nikolai Tanaev, ex-Prime Minister, has also been re-arrested following violation of his bail terms reports RIA Novosti.
• China's The People's Daily reports that at least on a formal level Russian-Kyrgyz relations are heading in the right direction after Putin and Bakiev's meeting in Moscow over the weekend. ITAR-TASS quoted Putin as telling Bakiev that

"We know about the difficult political processes that have taken place in
your country... I want to tell you that Russia as always is ready to implement
all the earlier plans and agreements, which were reached, in particular, with
your participation"

• Less reassuringly, Development Gateway has posted an article from Parahod.kg that predicts increased criminality in the republic following March's Tulip Revolution:

Those who think that the main conflict is the confrontation between southern
and northern clans and Bakiev and Feliks Kulov are also mistaken. Our special
services are sure that increased criminality in social and political life is the
most probable future for the former “island of democracy”

Tajikistan

• AlertNet reports on the opening of a UNDP-sponsored clinic in the Tajik Vorukh enclave in Kyrgyzstan, which it is hoped will improve Tajik-Kyrgyz relations, as well as providing healthcare for around 5,000 local inhabitants.
• RIA Novosti reports that a seminar on the Chemical Weapons Convention was held in Dushanbe with the aim of introducing local authorities to the terms of the Convention to help prevent proliferation.
• RIA Novosti also has an article on the arrest of an Uzbek man in Tajikistan on charges of organising an armed group in 1998.

Turkmenistan

• Eurasianet has an interesting piece speculating that the US might be considering trying to cut a deal with Turkmenistan over establishing an airbase in Turkmenbashi's republic. American officials have denied reports in the Russian media, but, at the risk of sounding cynical, human rights isn't exactly a priority for American foreign policy whilst keeping up appearances in the GWOT/GSAVE/make up your own acronym is...

Uzbekistan

• Blatant propaganda alert over at the Korea Times with a piece by the Uzbek Ambassador to South Korea entitled "Uzbekistan Goes Along Path of Stable Reforms". (X-posted to Registan - see separate post.)
• Kyrgyz-Uzbek relations seem to be going from bad to worse even after the gas fiasco according to an RFE/RL report with Uzbekistan accusing Kyrgyzstan of harbouring Islamic extremists who trained in the republic before moving on to Uzbekistan.
• Ferghana.ru has an article quoting Aleksei Malashenko as saying that Gulnara Karimova is a preferable presidential sucessor to her father. His reasoning seems pretty logical, even if the idea does somewhat automatically stick in the throat (and is likely to remain hypthetical unless Gulnara has a chage of heart and Uzbek society can stomach the idea of a woman in power):

Karimov's successor should suit representatives of different clans. From this
point of view, president's daughter Gulnara is one of preferable candidates.
There are people who are prepared to support her election. The only question is
what she herself thinks. I know she has been categorically set against the idea.
Elevation of other politicians to the pinnacle of power may split the country
and that will make everything possible - uprising of local Islamists, explosion
of international terrorism, and the spread of chaos all over the region.

Reports, etc.

• RFE/RL's Central Asia Report Vol. 5, no. 33 (Sept. 2) is available and includes news on Kyrgyzstan's gas situation, Russians leaving Kyrgyzstan and the activities of Uzbekistan's security services.
• IWPR's Reporting Central Asia No. 408 (Sept. 2) is available and has reports on missionary bans in Tajikistan and the growth of Kyrgyzstan's cannabis trade in the wake of the tourist slump.
• AlertNet's Central Asia Weekly Newswrap (Sept. 2) is available.