Corruption
US stops refueling tanker planes at key base
01.06.2010. Category:Kyrgyzstan
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman says the military has stopped refueling tanker planes at the Manas air base in Kyrgyzstan as the U.S. renegotiates with the local government on how much it will pay for fuel.
The base is considered a crucial transit center for sending troops and supplies in and out of Afghanistan. U.S. access was threatened this spring when street protests brought down the government and forced the president to flee.
Whitman and other U.S. military officials said Tuesday that transit flights continue at the base. But the spokesman also said that in an effort to conserve fuel, tanker planes are no longer stopping at Manas and are going elsewhere to refuel.
Washington Post
The base is considered a crucial transit center for sending troops and supplies in and out of Afghanistan. U.S. access was threatened this spring when street protests brought down the government and forced the president to flee.
Whitman and other U.S. military officials said Tuesday that transit flights continue at the base. But the spokesman also said that in an effort to conserve fuel, tanker planes are no longer stopping at Manas and are going elsewhere to refuel.
Washington Post
US Congress Hearing on Kyrgyzstan
23.04.2010. Category:Kyrgyzstan
After the Subcommttee Hearing at the US Congress, the journalist Steve LeVine interviewed some of the experts who gave a testimony.
New York-based lawyer Scott Horton, asserts that, if the precise same fuels contract had involved a U.S. commercial entity, it would be subject to investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.
Alexander Cooley, a Columbia University professor who has studied the Manas base as part of a look at numerous U.S. bases around the world, called the fuel scandal a problem both of local Kyrgyz politics and U.S. national security. He said that Kyrgyz politicians are certain to seize on the military base as an issue in October presidential elections. If the fuel scandal isn't resolved by then -- meaning if the U.S. hasn't fessed up -- Cooley suggested that the base could be in trouble.
Sam Patten, who watches Eurasia for Freedom House, a New York-based NGO, also raised the issue of the Embassy failing to engage with the opposition, but went further and argued that the State Department had ultimately failed to observe U.S. law obligating it to encourage democracy. Patten asserted that the State Department needs to watch more closely, because uprisings are bound to spread regionally. "The question in Uzbekistan isn't if revolution will happen, but when it will happen," Patten told the committee.
Oil and Glory
New York-based lawyer Scott Horton, asserts that, if the precise same fuels contract had involved a U.S. commercial entity, it would be subject to investigation by the U.S. Justice Department.
Alexander Cooley, a Columbia University professor who has studied the Manas base as part of a look at numerous U.S. bases around the world, called the fuel scandal a problem both of local Kyrgyz politics and U.S. national security. He said that Kyrgyz politicians are certain to seize on the military base as an issue in October presidential elections. If the fuel scandal isn't resolved by then -- meaning if the U.S. hasn't fessed up -- Cooley suggested that the base could be in trouble.
Sam Patten, who watches Eurasia for Freedom House, a New York-based NGO, also raised the issue of the Embassy failing to engage with the opposition, but went further and argued that the State Department had ultimately failed to observe U.S. law obligating it to encourage democracy. Patten asserted that the State Department needs to watch more closely, because uprisings are bound to spread regionally. "The question in Uzbekistan isn't if revolution will happen, but when it will happen," Patten told the committee.
Oil and Glory
The Bakiyev system of corruption an misuse of international money
22.04.2010. Category:Kyrgyzstan
In a briefing on April 16 in Brussels, ETG presented its findings on the corruptive system during the Bakiyev reign.
The presentation charts are attached.
The presentation charts are attached.
Internet censorship: Kyrgyzstan blocks independent web-sites
10.03.2010. Category:Kyrgyzstan
Today, since the early morning, internet users around Kyrgyzstan have been discussing blocking of a website of Information Agency Ferghana.Ru, popular independent web-site that is critical of Central Asian governments. Kyrgyz internet users say that Fergana.Ru, which was accessible in Kyrgyzstan users until today, has been blocked by most of the internet providers in Kyrgyzstan.More ...
US citizen a key player in alleged Italian telecom fraud
09.03.2010. Category:Kyrgyzstan
An apparently well-connected Soviet-born U.S. citizen has emerged as a key player in a massive Italian telecom fraud, according to court documents and published reports.
Rome Judge Aldo Morgigni has issued an arrest warrant for Eugene Gourevitch, believed to have been born in the Soviet Republic of Kyrgyzstan and who has reportedly held a U.S. passport since 1990, for alleged involvement in a fraud that is said to have siphoned an astonishing US$2.7 billion from the wholesale telephony divisions of Telecom Italia SpA and Fastweb SpA between 2003 and 2006.More ...
Rome Judge Aldo Morgigni has issued an arrest warrant for Eugene Gourevitch, believed to have been born in the Soviet Republic of Kyrgyzstan and who has reportedly held a U.S. passport since 1990, for alleged involvement in a fraud that is said to have siphoned an astonishing US$2.7 billion from the wholesale telephony divisions of Telecom Italia SpA and Fastweb SpA between 2003 and 2006.More ...
Kazakhstan says reading 'banned' book no longer illegal
27.05.2009. Category:Kazakhstan
Kazakhstan's Prosecutor-General's Office has announced that people are allowed to read the previously banned book about President Nursultan Nazarbaev but not allowed to distribute it, RFE/RL's Kazakh Service reports. More ...
The Godfather-In-Law: Arkadi Dubnov's article in Vremja Novostei
26.05.2009. Category:Kazakhstan
Нурсултан Абишевич Назарбаев заслуженно пользуется репутацией одного из самых мудрых политиков на постсоветском пространстве. Так считали еще на пространстве советском, когда оно в этом качестве доживало свой век почти 20 лет назад. Не случайно же тогда еще 50-летнего первого секретаря Компартии Казахстана прочили в премьеры обновленного СССР.More ...
Kazakhstan's book ban and the issue of 'Prior Restraint'
25.05.2009. Category:Kazakhstan
"Godfather-In-Law," a book about Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev, has struck a raw nerve with authorities in that country.
More ...Deutsche Bank complicit in Niyazov's terror regime
12.03.2009. Category:Turkmenistan
A new report slams a leading German bank for allowing Turkmenistan’s former president, Saparmurat Niyazov, to stash billions of dollars in state earnings in a personally controlled account.More ...
New Government in Austria uncomfortable with Aliyev
27.12.2008. Category:Kazakhstan
After the collapse of the Austrian Government under Chancellor Gusenbauer and the early elections with a new government the new political leadership at the Danube would like to reassess the case of R. Aliyev, who was convicted in absentia in 2007 for a long-term sentence by a Kazakh Court of a variety of charges, including kidnapping and foundation of a criminal organization. Although Kazakh authorities asked for the extradition of the former Kazakh Ambassador in Austria in 2007, a Vienna court turned down Astana's extradition request for Aliyev, saying he could not expect a fair Kazakh trial. Meanwhile, authorities in Vienna were still discussing the possibility of bringing action against the former son-in-law of the Kazakh President under Austrian law.
More ...