Eurasia / News
Top ruling party lawmaker assesses West’s reaction to Georgia’s political crisis as “measured and soft”
Analyst suggests sanctions needed against kingpin oligarch Ivanishvili in effort to defend democracy.
_1614255567.jpg)
Armenian PM takes to streets claiming military coup under way
Move comes after open letter demanding he quit was published by head of general staff of the armed forces.
Police grab Georgia’s opposition leader after storming barricaded party offices
Move comes after new PM is appointed and declares: “We categorically refuse any negotiations on a snap election! This issue is closed!” Predecessor resigned five days ago saying move to detain UNM head would exacerbate divisions in country.
US accepts invitation to nuclear deal talks with Iran hosted by EU
Biden administration has, meanwhile, made gestures such as dropping special restrictions on Iranian diplomats in New York imposed by Donald Trump officials.
Georgia’s PM resigns after court orders detention of opposition leader
Amid country’s political crisis sparked by claims of a rigged general election, Giorgi Gakharia says “I want to believe that this step will help reduce polarisation”.
Abuse and hate speech against LGBTI people rises across Europe and Central Asia
Crackdown on democracy and civil society during pandemic accompanied by increase in hate speech by politicians finds ILGA-Europe report.
Kazakhstan: Government allowing shady banking minnows to wither
The goal is to allow mid-ranking players to compete with the giants.
Turkey’s Q2 natural gas import prices set to rise, talks launched on Iran contract
Oil-indexed prices on track to rise substantially. Pipeline operator Botas is front-loading its 2021 take.
Satellite ‘detects alarming methane leaks after looking down on Turkmenistan’
New technology said to have discovered gas field emissions that have the planet-warming impact of driving 250,000 internal-combustion cars.
_1612971503.jpg)
Russia’s Megafon enters Uzbek telecoms market in $100mn joint venture with Ucell
Leading Russian telecoms company MegaFon has set up a joint venture, Digital Holding, with Uzbekistan’s biggest mobile phone company Ucell and will invest $100mn to enter the country’s telecoms market.
Buyout bid for KAZ Minerals raised after undervaluation claims
Latest offer also does not represent good value for shareholders says investor. If copper price rises further, viability of deal may be harmed.
Minority investors say GBP1bn-2bn missing from Kaz Minerals buyout offer valuation
At the end of October the two largest shareholders of Kazakh mining giant Kaz Minerals announced a massive GBP3bn all cash buyout offer to minority shareholders, as they want to take the company private.
Foreign investors banned from future mining projects in Kyrgyzstan
New president, the populist Sadyr Japarov, was last October busted out of prison where he was serving sentence stemming from kidnapping linked to protests against Canadian-owned Kumtor gold mine.