BISHKEK (TCA) — Russian President Vladimir Putin will pay a state visit to Kyrgyzstan, officials in both countries say.

The Kremlin has confirmed that President Putin is due to visit Kyrgyzstan, but no clear date has been set.

“The state visit to Bishkek is indeed on the [president’s] agenda,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on January 23, adding that the visit was being coordinated via diplomatic channels, Russian media reported.

Earlier on January 23, Daniyar Sydykov, head of the Foreign Policy Department of the Kyrgyz Presidential Administration, said that Kyrgyzstan’s President Sooronbai Jeenbekov had invited Putin to visit Kyrgyzstan, adding that the Russian leader could visit Bishkek in late March.

Sydykov said that a bilateral meeting of the presidents of Kyrgyzstan and Russia took place on the sidelines of a regular meeting of the Council of Heads of State of the CIS countries in September 2018 in Tajikistan, during which Jeenbekov officially invited Putin to pay a state visit to Kyrgyzstan, 24.kg news agency reported.

Sydykov also said that an official visit of Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov to Kyrgyzstan is expected on February 3-4. The main issue on the agenda will be the discussion of the upcoming state visit of Vladimir Putin.

A number of events are planned as part of the state visit. The 21st meeting of the Kyrgyz-Russian Intergovernmental Commission will be held, the 8th Kyrgyz-Russian Interregional Conference with the participation of the business communities of Kyrgyzstan and Russia will take place. Participation of 500 business representatives is expected, Sydykov said.

“For the first time Kyrgyzstan will host the Forum of Rectors of Higher Education Institutions of Kyrgyzstan and Russia. Following the forum, a number of agreements will be signed,” Sydykov added.

Following the results of the state visit, it is expected that 15 cooperation documents in the military, economic and law enforcement spheres, regional and foreign policy cooperation will be signed.

KABUL (TCA) — The chief executive of Afghanistan’s government, Abdullah Abdullah, at one of the world’s leading economic forums in Davos, Switzerland, attempted to persuade foreign investors to pour money into his war-torn country, RFE/RL reported.

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TASHKENT (TCA) — On February 4-6, a government delegation of Uzbekistan including Deputy Prime Minister Tanzila Narbayeva and Minister of Employment and Labor Relations Sherzod Kudbiyev will visit the United States. The delegation, responsible for issues of eradicating forced labor, will take part in the annual meeting of Cotton Campaign global coalition, in Washington, DC, the Jahon information agency reports with reference to the Uzbek Embassy in the United States.

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ASTANA (TCA) — The banking system in oil-rich Kazakhstan continues to suffer from problems, ranging from lack of liquidity to non-performing loans. The troubles in the banking sphere were admitted, and criticized, by the country’s president. We are republishing this article on the issue, originally published by Eurasianet:

A crisis-stricken bank in Kazakhstan that had come under criticism from the president has officially been liquidated.

The National Bank on January 17 said in a statement that the liquidation of Eximbank Kazakhstan followed a ruling by the Almaty economic court. The regulator said that retail and commercial accountholders will be compensated by a state deposit guarantee fund.

In truth, however, there are few clients still needing that help. Only 361 account-holders remained at Eximbank.

The bank had to all intents and purposes closed in August, when it was stripped of its banking license by the National Bank. The local affiliate of Forbes magazine has cited the regulator as saying that Eximbank’s assets had shrunk from January to August 2018 from 92 billion tenge ($277 million) to 60 billion tenge ($173 million).

The bank was jointly controlled by a group of Kazakh multimillionaires Yerkin Amirkhanov, Sergei Kan and Alexander Klebanov.

Eximbank’s fate appeared grim after April, when President Nursultan Nazarbayev complained about it and two other lenders, Astana Bank and Qazaq Banki, saying that they “showed bad results because the shareholders ran them badly.”

The remarks were presumably intended as a way of galvanizing the banks into better performance, but the result was quite the opposite. Clients laid siege to the banks in a desperate attempt to get their savings out. The outflow of money worsened an already bad situation that culminated with the National Bank pulling the licenses of all three banks. For Eximbank, liquidation is the end of the road.

For one shareholder, things have gotten even worse. The National Security Committee, or KNB, the latter-day incarnation of the KGB, in May detained Amirkhanov — whose wealth Forbes Kazakhstan had in 2017 estimated at $135 million — on charges of bribery. No details of the case have been disclosed.

That same month, police in Moscow detained another well-known Kazakh banker, Zhomart Yertayev, who is said to have a controlling role in Qazaq Banki. Authorities in Kazakhstan are seeking his extradition over suspicions that he siphoned $80 million from that bank. The Russian General Prosecutor’s Office has said it will extradite Yertayev, but the transfer has yet to take place.

ASHGABAT (TCA) — President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov held a video-conference working session on January 21 with the participation of some vice-premiers and hyakims (heads of administration) of Ashgabat and velayats (provinces), to discuss seasonal agricultural works and the aspects of social and economic development of the capital and regions, the State News Agency of Turkmenistan reported.

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TASHKENT (TCA) — On the second day of his official visit to Germany, on January 22, the President of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev met with the Minister President of Bavaria Markus Söder, in Munich, the Jahon information agency reported.

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