Here are a couple news items from the past month. They seem to me a little too celebratory, but I thought I would bring them to your attention.
Item: Oil and France
Oils deals and state political visits between France and Kazakhstan were discussed in an article titled France Secures $6Bln Kazakh Deals. I suppose it’s worth mentioning that I always pause when “business” deals are heralded as political breakthroughs. Which is not to say business and politics shouldn’t mix, just that I’m unsure if Total represents all of France, and I know for certain that Kazakhstan’s oil business affects only the tiniest upper-crust percentage of Kazakhstan.
The biggest deal was signed between Total and GDF Suez and Kazakh state energy firm Kazmunaigaz to develop the Khvalynskoye Caspian Sea gas field.
The French firms are taking a 25% stake while Kazmunaigaz retains 25%. The other 50% is owned by Russian energy giant Lukoil.
Meanwhile, construction consortium Spie Capag signed memorandums to build a pipeline that will link the giant Kashagan oil field to the Caspian Sea, circumventing Russian supply routes to Europe.
On top of that, Astana is getting a new tramway. Make of that what you will.
Item: Russia and the WTO
WTO membership continues to elude Russia, Belarus, and Kazakhstan, but the three are united in their efforts to join together. Since tandem entries are unheard of, Russia reported last week that the three countries would be going it alone, and yet this week, “Igor Shuvalov, Russia’s first deputy prime minister, said the three countries had formed a single working group to negotiate entry and would join the WTO simultaneously and on equal terms.”
Item: Turkish Friends
Turkey and Kazakhstan are best friends now. This friendship is built on oil, but I imagine that Nazzy B’s pet project, the Uranium World Bank, might come up some time in the near future.
Item: Aral Reborn?
Wait. What?
Standing on the shore under the relentless Central Asian sun, Badarkhan Prikeyev drew on a cigarette and squinted into the distance as one fishing boat after another returned with the day’s catch.
Until recently, this spot where the fish merchant was standing, in a man-made desert at the edge of nowhere, represented one of the world’s worst environmental calamities.
Now fresh water was lapping at his boots, proclaiming an environmental miracle — the return of the Aral Sea.
That sounds very nice… but keep reading. This isn’t actually news.
…now, nearly two decades after the Soviet Union broke up, the damage is far from reversed.
That’s what I thought. The Northern Aral is growing… although the limits of its growth are very real. The dam will need to be raised to increase the sea level, and the taller it gets, the stronger it needs to be. And, not to be a Negative Nancy here, but the water supply for the Syr Darya is still in danger of over-use by Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan, and the glaciers in the Tien Shan that feed the river are slowly disappearing.
But, in all honesty, I find this optimism less troubling than the pessimism of other pieces, like this one.
But even before any of these conflicts break out, there is a more pressing concern, [according to] Mikhail Vovk [on the Chaskor.ru portal]. There are fears Afghan rebels might stage a raid on the Vozrozhdeniye facility where the Soviet military tested and then stored biological weapons. That facility had been on an island in the Aral, but as a result of the retreat of the sea’s waters, it is now reachable via dry land.
The longstanding tension between the two water-surplus countries, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan, and the three water-short countries, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan has been exacerbated by the decision of Bishkek and Dushanbe to use more of the flow to power hydro-electric facilities and thus release less water downstream.
Item: Honestly Unhappy News
A Kazakhstan court has rejected appeals to save the journalist charged with divulging state secrets by printing a damning letter connecting businesspersons with the KGB-descended KNB.
Ramazan Yesergepov, the owner and editor of Alma Ata Info newspaper, was arrested in January for divulging state secrets after publishing a letter he said revealed links between a businessman and the country’s National Security Committee (KNB).
This man is not to be confused with Yevgeny Zhovtis, though I admit that I have done just that. My apologies to both of these men and their families. Though it might be a sign of Nazarbaev re-tightening the media reigns that a person can have trouble keeping track of all the threatened journalists. Zhovtis was also put on trial for the bizarre vehicular manslaughter earlier this year in which he claims to have been blinded on the road by high beam headlights, only to find an unfortunate man in the road, whom he was unable to avoid hitting and killing.
Zhovtis’ supporters say the trial, which led to a four-year prison sentence, was politically motivated and had not allowed Zhovtis to mount a proper defence and prove he was unable to prevent the accident.
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Thanks for these great links…
One thing I think should be noted is that Yevgeny Zhovtis is not the journalist that you are referring to – that’s Ramazan Yesergepov.
Both men, however, are political prisoners of the dictatorship of Nazarbayev.
Right, I knew there were two… I thought I had them separated correctly. Thanks for the correction – I’ll make sure it shows up on the blog. It does these men no good for me to fail to keep them straight.
It’s interesting that Turkish-language Zaman didn’t pick up nearly as much with the Kazakhstan story. I wonder why they didn’t find it as relevant for the locals, and rather use it for the Businessman’s Zaman
Also, this was a fun piece to read as a Jackie Harvey Hollywood piece from The Onion.
How about the unveiling of the Nazarbayev statue in Kazakh Eli Square in Astana? Kazakhbashi, anyone?
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