Central Asia - The Times Of Central Asia

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Transport Diversification Allows Resumption of Kazakh Oil Product Exports to Europe

In March 2024, Kazakh state pipeline operator JSC KazTransOil again started loading of dark oil products produced at Kazakhstani refineries onto Aframax size tankers through the Republic of Georgia's Batumi Oil Terminal LLC. The shipments to European countries will total 60,000-80,000 tons. Aframax vessels are designed for the safe and efficient transportation of oil and oil products to various regions of the world, and can carry about 600,000 barrels of oil or petroleum products. The move is designed to diversify modes of transit, transportation routes and to improve economic efficiency. KazTransOil reports that it plans to load dark oil products of Kazakhstani origin regularly every month. This decision will allow customers of the Batumi Oil Terminal to reduce transportation costs, making the export route through Batumi more attractive, and should contribute to an increase in the volume of transported products. Over its more than twenty years of existence, KazTransOil has transported more than one billion tons of oil and has moved more than 825 billion ton-kilometers of cargo. To date, KazTransOil manages an extensive network of oil pipelines with a length of more than 5,400 kilometers, providing oil transportation both to domestic refineries and for export in different directions. The company remains in a leading position, providing transportation of about 40% of all oil produced in Kazakhstan and almost 90% of all crude supplies to domestic refineries.

Central Asia and Turkey Serving as Way-Points for Russia’s Explosives Imports

Citing an analysis of trade data, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has reported that Russia has boosted its imports of an explosive compound critical to the production of artillery ammunition - including from companies based in the U.S. and other Western countries and allies - despite international sanctions meant to choke Moscow's wartime production. Russian imports of nitrocellulose, a highly flammable cotton product central to gunpowder and rocket propellant production, surged 70% in 2022, the first year of Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and midway through 2023 imports amounted to 3,039 tons of the product - nearly double the 2021 level. Another supplier of cotton pulp, China, increased its supplies after U.S. and European (EU) sanctions. However, according to Liu Pengyu, spokesperson for the Chinese Embassy in Washington, "Sino-Russian economic and trade cooperation is not directed against any third party and should not be violated or coerced by any third party... China does not sell weapons to parties involved in the Ukraine crisis and handles exports of dual-use goods in a reasonable manner in accordance with laws and regulations." According to Russian customs data provided by trade database, Import Genius, Turkish company Noy İç Ve Diş Ti̇caret accounted for nearly half of Russia's nitrocellulose imports since the Russia-Ukraine conflict began, with most of the Istanbul-based company's sales to Russian companies that are government contractors based in Moscow. The Turkish Embassy, as well as representatives of the company, declined to comment. Nitrocellulose supplies to Russia have also been found to contain chemical tracers from the U.S. company, International Flavors & Fragrances, which suspended its direct shipments to Russia in April 2022 but continued them through third countries. The company said its product didn't contain enough nitrogen to be a component of an explosive. However, Michelle Pantoja, a professor of mechanical engineering at Texas Tech University who heads the combustion laboratory's research center, said the nitrogen content of civilian nitrocellulose could be increased to the required level. In December, the U.S. Department of Commerce added nitrocellulose to its list of high-priority controlled commodities, which restricts its exports, and the Treasury Department said it would impose sanctions on banks or other institutions found to be financing such international trades. To be effective, however, sanctions must also apply to nitrocellulose supplier companies, said a Rand analyst. Last year, the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project (OCCRP) claimed to have documents in its possession which showed that more than 98% of nitrocellulose imported into Russia is supplied by Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and that imports have increased since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. The Import Genius database revealed that in 2022 and early 2023, Fergana Chemical Plant, one of the largest cotton pulp producers in Uzbekistan, not only supplied raw materials to Russian importing companies, but also made direct shipments to two Russian gunpowder plants - one in Kazan, the other in Perm - worth more than $2.2 million. In total, according to a joint investigation by Important Stories, OCCRP and Vlast.kz, the plant supplied 2,700...

Authorities in Central Asia Warn Against Terrorist Recruitment

Uzbekistan's Interior Ministry has issued a warning over increased instances of calls to commit terrorist acts spread via social media and messenger apps. Citizens are being implored to booby-trap public places - including shopping and entertainment centers, schools and other places of mass gathering - for large sums of money. Besides the promise of money, extremists are offering to provide weapons and send a plan of action - while the provocateurs often won't take no for an answer. The anonymous instigators - as a rule, there is no photo or number in the profile - often write with similar appeals to children and teenagers, intimidating them with fabricated stories such as having all of that person's data and personal information. "In case you receive this kind of message, please do not panic and do not send them to public chat rooms, to your acquaintances and friends, but immediately report it to the internal affairs authorities on the number 102. Block the senders and do not enter into correspondence or conversations with them," the Interior Ministry said in a statement. "There is a Cybersecurity Center within the structure of the interior agencies, which is engaged in monitoring and identifying individuals and channels spreading calls for unlawful acts. Special divisions have been created within the operational and investigative department of the internal affairs bodies, which are also engaged in activities to identify terrorist threats on the World Wide Web and punish attackers," Shokirjon Hashimov, spokesman for the operational and investigative department of the Uzbek Interior Ministry, told The Times of Central Asia. The Uzbekistan TV channel reported on the detention of a group of extremist students, who were plotting terrorist attacks in several locations in Tashkent. The attackers, who were planning to carry out a terrorist attack in the spring of 2022, were discovered in February 2021. The young men carefully thought out a plan of action and chose the Israeli embassy in Tashkent or the murder of U.S. and Chinese citizens at the capital's international airport as the target of their planned attacks. After committing the terrorist acts, the boys intended to move to Syria via Turkey, or to Afghanistan via Surkhandarya. Over the course of the investigation, explosives were found at the suspects' homes. The court sentenced them to between 10 and 15 years in prison. Calls for vigilance can also be heard in neighboring Kyrgyzstan, where through social networks and dating sites, attackers are trying to recruit young people to carry out terrorist attacks in Russia. "The representative office of the Ministry of Labor, Social Security and Migration of Kyrgyzstan in the Russian Federation warns that through social networks and popular messengers such as Telegram, there is active recruitment of citizens, including underage children, to participate in terrorist acts in Russia," the press service of the ministry reported.

Saiga Antelope Revival Pleases Kazakh Naturalists — And Leonardo DiCaprio

Kazakhstan's steppe is now home to booming numbers of saiga antelope, with the country's authorities and environmentalists pulling together to revive the country's iconic species. News that the saiga population is no longer classified as "endangered" has reached the Hollywood actor Leonardo diCaprio, who recently wrote on his Instagram page: "This unprecedented recovery reflects the remarkable conservation of saigas in Kazakhstan. A species that once numbered 48,000 in 2005 has now grown to over 1.9 million individuals in the wild." The animal is, however, still listed as "threatened" in Kazakhstan. The Kazakh Ministry of Ecology estimates that the saiga population will rise above 2.6 million after the calving season this year. However, as their number has grown, the Kazakh authorities have reclassified the saiga as a species that may be hunted. Environmental scientists in the West Kazakhstan region have calculated that around 340,000 adult saigas -- around 18% of the population -- can be culled this year, to which end over 40,000 have already been killed. Saiga meat is sold in stores and bazaars in Kazakhstan, often to be used in stews, and is also found online on the Russian marketplace Ozon. Kazakh society is divided about the treatment of these indigenous antelopes. Some support the cull by pointing out the damage that they cause to crops, which lost the West Kazakhstan region alone over $25 million last year. Others argue that saiga hunting, if not properly regulated, could lead to poaching and the resale of saiga antlers on the black market. This could lead to another drastic decline in a species that has been thriving in recent years.

Uzbekistan Working on Economic Reforms, Wants U.S. to Get More Involved

Uzbekistan’s ambassador to the United States says the relationship between the two countries is on a roll. “It’s a very promising time,” Ambassador Furqat Sidiqov said in Washington this week, adding that the two nations have a high level of “effective, open dialogue” as Uzbekistan seeks American investment and U.S. support for economic reforms and in other areas. Even difficult topics such as child labor and concerns about religious freedom in Uzbekistan are on the table, he said. American businesses stand to benefit from Uzbekistan’s push into information technology and other industries, Sidiqov said on Wednesday at a meeting of the Caspian Policy Center, a research center based in Washington. More than 100,000 Uzbeks are engaged in IT services; with most industry exports already go to the United States, a technology campus affiliated with Arizona State University will open this year in the Central Asian country, according to Sidiqov. The ambassador acknowledged that Uzbekistan faces challenges such as water scarcity, and that the country’s leaders hope U.S. and international institutions can help implement “smart technologies” that save water. Only 20% of Uzbekistan’s water comes from within the country – the rest coming from neighboring states - and the vast majority of water is used in agriculture, often inefficiently, according to the press office of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev. Uzbekistan is privatizing most of its banking industry, there are plans to relax the tax burden on foreign investors, and an anti-corruption push is underway. “Our main strategy is to minimize the role of the government in business,” said Sidiqov, a former deputy foreign minister who became ambassador to the U.S. last year. Sidiqov worked as a lower-ranking diplomat in the Washington embassy on two previous tours lasting a decade. Uzbekistan’s state-owned banks have made progress toward “more commercially-driven business models” since the unveiling of a banking reform plan in 2020, according to Fitch Ratings, the credit ratings agency. But “further improvements may take longer due to the sector’s deep-seated structural weaknesses and new risks,” the agency said in March. A U.S. congressional delegation recently returned from a trip that include a visit to Uzbekistan. The delegation, which included Adam Smith, the top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, met Mirziyoyev and his foreign and defense ministers. The Uzbek ambassador said a key development in ties between Central Asia and the United States came last year when U.S. President Joe Biden met leaders from the region in New York. The summit, dubbed “C5+1,” included the presidents of Kazakhstan Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan. They discussed security, economic development, climate change and efforts to promote peace. “For the first time in our history, the United States is seeing us as a region. Before, we were part of American policy toward Afghanistan, something like that,” said Sidiqov, adding that Central Asia would welcome a Biden visit. “We will be more than happy to organize that,” he said.

Drug Trafficking

Central Asia Counts the Cost of Drug Trafficking

Speaking at the 67th session of the UN Commission on Narcotic Drugs in March, Zafar Samad - director of the Narcotics Control Agency under the President of Tajikistan - admitted that vast quantities of drugs are being smuggled to Europe and Russia through Tajikistan’s “northern route.” In other Central Asian nations, increased efforts are being made to curtail the problem. Kazakhstan, for example, is strengthening its legal systems and policies to effectively counter the laundering of proceeds from drug trafficking in cooperation with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC). The Kazakh government also recently approved a Comprehensive Plan to Combat Drug Addiction and Trafficking. Given its long and porous border with Afghanistan, however, the problem in Tajikistan remains acute. “The increase in the volume of drug seizures in Tajikistan indicates that there are large stocks of drugs in the northern provinces of Afghanistan intended for shipment along the northern route,” Samad stated. Smugglers are “assessing the situation and exploring the possibilities of transporting drugs into Tajikistan, taking into account the measures taken by the Tajik Government to strengthen the Tajik-Afghan border by creating new border facilities.” This year will see the adoption of a CSTO program aimed at fortifying the border between Tajikistan and Afghanistan. However, the “northern route” - sometimes called the “Heroin Highway” - has a long and checkered history, which has not always led to interstate cooperation. [caption id="attachment_16236" align="aligncenter" width="495"] The village of Karakul, GBAO[/caption] The Pamir Highway route was established in the 1990s, opening up new avenues for suppliers following the collapse of the Soviet Union. Beginning in the Kyrgyz second city of Osh, the highway - the second highest international road in the world - traverses the length of Tajikistan and down through the south of Uzbekistan before terminating in Afghanistan. An estimated 15 tons of opium and 80 tons of heroin are trafficked through Tajikistan each year, the majority passing through the poverty-stricken, self-governing Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) along a desolate mountainous route known locally as Bam-i-Dunya - the Roof of the World. Said by locals to be older than Rome, Osh is a dusty spread of Soviet-era buildings adorned with satellite dishes and murals of MIG fighter jets and Misha the Bear. Having long been dubbed one of the drug capitals of Central Asia, Kalashnikov-wielding soldiers guarded cafés after dark. An ancient Silk Road route in use for millennia, the modern Pamirsky Trakt was completed in 1937. From Osh, the red soil highway ascends to the windswept mud-brick hamlet of Sary Tash, a major stopover on the smuggling route where the roads to Kashgar in China and the border with Tajikistan converge. Despite covering 45% of its landmass, the self-governing Gorno-Badakhshan Autonomous Oblast (GBAO) is home to just 3% of the population of Tajikistan. The only Central Asian country to have descended into civil war following the collapse of the USSR, the Pamiris chose the losing side, with the five-year-long conflict leaving approximately 100,000 dead and 1.2 million...