Postcard from Bishkek

If I am a little late with this week’s postcard, then please bear with me.  The reason is simple: John, a consultant from the UK has appeared en route to a new project in Tajikistan and Afghanistan and he brought with him some jars of “Black Gold”, (Marmite), and copies of the Times, the Economist and the satirical magazine Private Eye.  I have spent several hours munching on toasted Marmite sandwiches and devouring the press.  All of them have websites, and the Economist has podcasts, but the papers tend to limit access to their articles, so getting my hands on an original printed copy is a real bonus.  Thanks John!

(For the record, he also called me this morning to ask why he hadn’t received the postcard yet … he’s used to it being in his inbox when he gets up in the morning.  I did point out that that’s normally six hours later, but that he’s the reason I am a little late this week).

The headlines in the three papers declared respectively: “Saudis told Obama not to humiliate Mubarak”, “Egypt Rises up” and “Phone Hacking Scandal: Murdoch Answers Critics”, but before I read these fascinating stories, I turned my attention first to the “Mind Games” section in the Times for my fix of Sudoku, Brain Trainer and Codeword.  .  (As I understand it, apparently, the Americans tend to turn to “comics page” first, before turning to the Sports pages.)

When I did get to peruse the stories, unfortunately, I didn’t see in any of them a reference to one of the strangest stories of the week, that Maxim Bakiev, (the former “crown prince of Kyrgyzstan” as the son of former President Kurmanbek Bakiev), who is currently seeking asylum in the UK, is reputed to have bought himself a mansion for the princely sum of GBP5.8 million – just over nine million dollars, US.  I suppose the news might have broken on another day and so be covered in a different issue of the Times.  However, it struck me as typical “grist for the mill” for the commentators at the Economist, (who managed to wryly comment on: the fracas in the House of Lords over the Bill on the referendum on changing the voting system and drawing new constituency boundaries that would reduce the number of MPs from 650 to 600; the delays at implementing the Act of Parliament designed to strengthen Britain’s anti corruption stance and After Egypt, whose next?).  A little disappointed, I thought that Private Eye could have found some suitable satirical comment.

It seems that Maxim’s not alone in buying property in Europe.  It seems that the former Minister of Energy who turned up in Ireland, Saparbek Balkibekov, has bought an island and therefore gained special protection as a major investor.  The General Prosecutor’s office, here in Bishkek, reports that he has been granted “refugee status” in Ireland, but they are still seeking his extradition on charges of embezzlement and abuse of power.

Maxim legacy is still far reaching here.  The country’s largest mobile phone operator was apparently owned by him and one of his entourage, and although 51% of the shares have been nationalized, for some reason, the other 49% still seem to be in their hands.  There is some controversy over the way the company has been managed and the government have sacked some of the senior staff and replaced them with their own nominees.  The company’s original owners are also reportedly trying to pursue a claim to the shares.

The problem of government interference in business activities seems to have been one of the themes of the week – especially given the number of companies that have been nationalized.  The Finance Ministry claims that the state hasn’t received a single som from the almost 50 takeovers, but presumably that will change when some of the are auctioned off in about a month’s time.  We’ll see.

Another example of government intervention is the restrictions that have been imposed on the mining industry.  All applications for licenses, etc., have been suspended.  It’s not a simple issue … there seems to be several concerns … environmental issues, irregularities in some of the procedures, the failure of the mining companies to actually deliver on promises – although that seems to be a moot question, one company, for example, is ready to move on its business plan but is constantly hampered by court cases registered against it – and now a government order preventing it from acting.  There is more talk of the government taking a greater role in the one gold mine to open since Independence and that seems to have caused considerable controversy both here and abroad.

On the other hand, the Deputy Prime Minister claims that they are undertaking steps to try and reduce or eliminate any “interference”, but the Russian embassy, amongst others, have still decided to highlight the issue.

Apparently the embassy issued a comment which said: “Unfortunately, lately there have been facts of interference in the activity of economic units, making a tangible contribution not only to the economy of Kyrgyzstan, but also forming a positive image of the Republic in international arena”.  It went on to say that it was necessary “to create conditions for the normal and stable work of enterprises …”.

All this arose in a public letter of protest from tha embassy over the decision of the Kyrgyz authorities decision to reallocate frequencies for various TV channels.  Russian TV channels are quite popular here, and the First channel, (ORT), used to have a particularly good frequency allocated to it.  Last week, however, the freq        uesncy was taken away from it and reallocated to a local Kyrgyz channel, (KTR).  The embassy took offence to this measure, citing bilateral agreements and even Presidential decrees, but without any specifics and, to be honest, I can’t find the legal documents they are referring to.  The Kyrgyz side says that the reallocation came about as a result of technical criteria – apparently, the Kyrgyz channel uses a higher, more sophisticated technology than the Russian channel.  They say that recepotion of ORT shouldn’t be affected because they use an older technology, (presumably analogue rather than digital).  Both sides, (Kyrgyz and Russian), claim that they have received representations from members of the public: one praising the improvement and the other complaining about the deterioration in the service.  I can’t say that I have noticed anything in particular, but I have cable TV and although you expect reception to be much better on cable, I haven’t noticed any improvement … KTR still has a lot of “snow” and interference … and although reception on OTR seems to be worse than it used to be, that’s just an impression and I can’t honestly say that I have noticed any specific deterioration.  The people, (Russians), that I have asked tell me that they haven’t noticed anything either.

One commentary that I have seen suggested that the embassy complaint centered mainly around the fact that there had been no consultation about the changes, but the Kyrgyz say that there were numerous announcements about the proposed changes in the media, most notably on KTR … maybe the Russian embassy staff don’t watch KTR – after all, at least half the broadcasts are in Kyrgyz.

As it happens, recently there have been a number of cases where the Kyrgyz have been emphasizing their nationality.  The members of parliament have instead that Ministers report in Kyrgyz rather than Russian, after all, they say, the majority of the population live in the villages of Rural Kyrgyzstan and speak Kyrgyz rather than Russian.  They want to hear the news in Kyrgyz and, to be fair, the proceedings are broadcast to the villages by radio.  (ORT, it seems, is more popular in the Northern parts of Kyrgyzstan where the, dwindling, Russian population is concentrated.)

Another example has been the proposal to rename many settlements which have Russian names, (like Voyeniy Antonovka – Military Anotonovka), with Kyrgyz names.  Once news of the proposal hit the news media, it cost one official his job.  The plan was to replace the Russian with “historical” Kyrgyz names, but there was also talk of preventing Russians from trying to lay claim to the territory on the basis of: “look, it has a Russian name … our ancestors used to live here … “.   One political party leader put it like this: “if the names are historical then so be it, but the aim is simply to replace Russian names with Kyrgyz ones, then I have to oppose it”, (that’s my paraphrasing what he said in Russian, not necessarily a direct translation).

One of the News Agencies has conducted a survey asking people what they think of the idea and the general impression amongst those respondents that are reported, seems to be opposed to the idea.

All this at the same time as the parliament approved the idea of naming a mountain after Vladimir Putin.  I could understand why, if the Russians are having trouble interpreting the mixed signals that seem to be emanating out of Kyrgyzstan.

If the Russians are confused then I am not sure what the Uzbeks will make of the situation.  Batyrov is still being blamed for the events in the South last summer but Roza Otunbaeva has pointed out that the only way to resolve the issue over the enclaves is an exchange of territory.  There were over 50 border incidents last year, some with Uzbekistan and some with Tajikistan – each with the potential to create another serious dispute between the countries.

Another mixed signal comes in the news that Kyrgyzstan raises about one and a half million dollars from hunting – for the sale of licenses and servicing hunting tours.  Apparently, there are somewhere between 60 and 100 licenses to hunt Marco Polo sheep issued every year, at about USD15,000 each, and more, cheaper ones, for other animals.  The same news report also talked about the value of the animals for ecotourism but, to be honest, I find it hard to see how ecotourism can provide that sort of income.

On the positive side, from one point of view, it has been reported that the authorities don’t plan any increase in tax rates this year, although there has been an interesting comment from one minister that one large tax tax is better than lots of little, cascading, ones – which suggests to me that there is a discussion going on somewhere about reforming the tax system.   Even if last year they managed, despite all the disruptions, to raise more tax revenues than they planned, (how? is a good question), there is still a budget shortfall, a decline in GDP, and it’s not clear how they will fund increases in public service salaries … in the case of health workers by as much as four times existing salary levels.

I’m sure Private Eye could have a field day with all of this.

Tags: Expat, Life_in_Kyrgyzstan, Weekly_Postcards