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BISHKEK (TCA) — 2018 was difficult for the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). Some analysts say that this union is in crisis since certain conflicts have arisen between the former Soviet republics. Nevertheless, there were positive results. Continue reading
BISHKEK (TCA) — The member countries of the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) — Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia — may in the future abandon border procedures on inner frontiers and adopt a single currency by analogy with the legislation of the European Union, Kyrgyzstan President Sooronbai Jeenbekov told Rossiya-24 television on December 3, Russia’s TASS news agency reported. Continue reading
ASTANA (TCA) — It is now becoming more difficult for Kazakhstan to balance its multi-vector foreign policy when it comes to Astana’s relations with Moscow and Washington. We are republishing this article on the issue, written by George Voloshin: Relations between the United States and Russia have continued to deteriorate in 2017 and 2018. In August 2017, US President Donald Trump signed into law a new bill called Countering America’s Adversaries Through Sanctions Act (CAATSA), which extended the post-2014 Ukraine sanctions and enlarged their extraterritoriality. Among other points found in the law, it enables the administration to sanction foreign buyers of Russian military equipment. This situation cannot be more worrying for neighboring Kazakhstan, a member of the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) military alliance and a regular buyer of discounted Russian weapons. The Central Asian country had earlier found itself in a difficult predicament over the annexation of Crimea. Astana had abstained from a vote on a 2014 United Nations General Assembly resolution condemning the occupation of Crimea by Russian armed forces. And most recently, in December 2017, it was one of 26 UN members that came out against a new resolution criticizing the human rights abuses and ethnic and religious discrimination on the peninsula. India, China, Cuba, North Korea, Serbia and South Africa also voted against (Informburo.kz, December 20, 2017; Interfax, August 2, 2017; Zakon.kz, March 28, 2014). Astana has traditionally stuck to a multi-vector foreign policy predicated on the idea of maintaining good relationships with partners big and small, close and remote. Indeed, President Nursultan Nazarbayev’s official visit to Washington, DC, in January 2018, was meant to establish a direct connection at the highest level to the Trump administration. Nevertheless, this balanced foreign policy orientation has not been sufficient to safeguard Kazakhstan from dangerous economic exposure to Western sanctions against Russia. And now, the US Congress is considering adopting several new, even more punitive anti-Russian sanctions bills. In particular, the Defending American Security from Kremlin Aggression Act (DASKAA)—dubbed a “bill from hell”—could complicate the situation for Kazakhstan further (Zn.ua, September 3; Kp.ru, January 17). The Russian ruble has been steadily losing ground since the beginning of 2018. It cost around 57 rubles to buy 1 US dollar in January, whereas the current exchange rate is almost 66 to 1. The ruble volatility can, of course, be attributed to a host of other factors not directly related to Western sanctions, such as the price of oil, especially owing to the key role it plays in Russia’s budget and export revenue. However, the spot price of crude has been improving since June 2017, when it hovered around $44 per barrel, reaching as high as $85 per barrel on October 3, 2018. The ruble’s current weakness, in turn, has negatively impacted a neighboring currency, the Kazakhstani tenge. Kazakhstan is Russia’s closest trading partner in the former Soviet space and is itself a major exporter of hydrocarbons, primarily crude oil. Despite the ongoing oil price recovery, the tenge has depreciated from...
BISHKEK (TCA) — Founders and top managers of more than two hundred leading enterprises of Kyrgyzstan and Russia discussed ways to expand cooperation within the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU). On September 14, a Kyrgyz-Russian business forum was held at the Ala-Archa state residence near the Kyrgyz capital Bishkek. Two contracts were signed at B2B meetings. The Kyrgyz-Russian Development Fund and the Russian Export-Import Bank signed a contract on concessional lending for the supply of Russian equipment to a Kyrgyz state-owned company, and the Imperial Group of Companies, Kyrgyzstan’s footwear manufacturer, and Russian Leather JSC signed a contract for the supply of raw materials. Five promising sectors Kyrgyz Deputy Economy Minister Eldar Abakirov told the guests about five economic sectors profitable to invest in, as well as measures taken by the Kyrgyz authorities to create favorable conditions for doing business and improve the investment climate in the country. Abakirov urged to consider the possibility of investing in the garment industry, processing of agricultural products, tourism, information technologies, and medicine. According to experts, these sectors can give high growth, and invested funds could be paid off in three-five years, he said. Large investors can conclude investment agreements with the Kyrgyz Government and negotiate special conditions as part of the agreements. The country also introduced a stabilization regime under which investors have the right to choose the most favorable way to pay taxes including VAT for ten years. If taxes are raised, the investors will be able to use the tax rates fixed in their contracts. The primary Government’s task is to ensure the private property rights and protect businesses from unreasonable interference of state bodies, Abakirov concluded. Trade relations The adaptation period after Kyrgyzstan’s entry to the Eurasian Economic Union has been passing without significant shocks, and this is the merit of both the state agencies and the business, Charge d'Affaires of Russia in Kyrgyzstan Vadim Chekmazov said. Russia is trying to maintain its role of a strategic partner and ally, helping to smoothly overcome the transition period when the markets of the two countries unite. The Russian-Kyrgyz Development Fund has already allocated hundreds of millions of dollars to entrepreneurs in loans aimed at developing the food industry, transport logistics, agro-industrial complex and construction. As a result, production and exports are growing in Kyrgyzstan. Exports of Kyrgyz goods to Russia increased by 41% over the first half of 2018 and by 47% in 2017. In 2017, trade between Kyrgyzstan and Russia amounted to $1.5 billion and increased by 12.4% compared to 2016, of which Kyrgyz exports were $265 million, and imports — $1.3 billion. Kyrgyzstan exports clothing, machinery, agricultural raw materials, and glass to Russia, and imports oil products, ferrous and non-ferrous metals, consumer goods, timber, cardboard, chemical products, perfumes and cosmetics, plastics, agricultural products, and household appliances. At the same time, imports of goods from Russia are growing more slowly. Over the first six months of 2018, it has grown by 10%, and in 2017 — by 34%. This is encouraging...
BISHKEK (TCA) — China and Russia should strengthen the synergy of Beijing-proposed Belt and Road Initiative and the Eurasian Economic Union (EEU), Chinese President Xi Jinping said during his talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the fourth Eastern Economic Forum (EEF) in the Russian port city of Vladivostok on September 11, China’s Xinhua news agency reported. Continue reading
ASTANA (TCA) — Kazakhstan is still searching for its place and identity in the post-Soviet world — between the Turkic World and Russia-led Eurasian Economic Union. We are republishing this article on the issue, written by Farkhad Sharip, originally published by The Jamestown Foundation’s Eurasia Daily Monitor: The term “pan-Turkism,” which carried a similarly ominous meaning as “enemy of the people” under Joseph Stalin and his Soviet successors, has become a strong component of Kazakhs’ search for national identity ever since their country achieved independence more than a quarter of a century ago. Indeed, modern Kazakhs have developed a strong sense of pride of belonging to the Turkic World. All this came to the foreground recently, during celebrations of the 125th anniversary of the birth of national poet Magzhan Zhumabayev, who was exiled to Siberia during the Stalinist purges and shot, in 1937, at an NKVD prison for glorifying pan-Turkism and nationalism. Not only did Soviet authorities remove Magzhan’s poems from books, they also banned his name (Inform.kz, April 30). The open-air cultural event, staged on June 22, near the village of Sarytomar, North Kazakhstan, the birthplace of Zhumabayev, was attended by prominent intellectuals and public figures from Turkey, Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan as well as representatives of Turkic-speaking minorities of the Russian Federation and Mongolia. The akim(governor) of North Kazakhstan region, Kumar Aksakalov, stressing that Zhumabayev was the poet of all Turkic nations, read out a congratulatory letter from Kazakhstani President Nursultan Nazarbayev. Additionally, the chairperson of the International Organization of Turkic Culture (TURKSOY), Duysen Kasseinov, noted that 2018 was declared the year of Magzhan Zhumabayev in all Turkic-language-speaking countries (Tengrinews.kz, June 24). Earlier, on June 19, President Nazarbayev signed a decree to transfer the regional capital of South Kazakhstan from Shymkent to Turkestan and create a new territorial entity—Turkestan region. The holy city of Turkestan is widely recognized as “the spiritual capital of the Turkic world.” Nazarbayev emphasized the “historical significance” of this decision (Inform.kz, June 19). Kazakhstan’s government, with its historically strong ties to Slavic states and particularly to Russia, has never officially displayed its pan-Turkic leanings particularly pointedly. But Nazarbayev’s increasingly ambiguous attitude toward the Russia-dominated Eurasian Economic Union (EEU) suggests that, at least in economic terms, he is seeking more independence from Moscow and closer ties with Istanbul. At the 2013 session of the Supreme Eurasian Economic Council, in Minsk, he actually proposed admitting Turkey into the Customs Union of (at the time) Russia, Belarus and Kazakhstan and dissolving the Eurasian Union as a redundant and inefficient structure. Nazarbayev expressed a worry that “we are recreating the USSR [Union of Soviet Socialist Republics] or something subordinated to Russia” (Nur.kz, October 24, 2013). This was not the first time the Kazakhstani president irritated Moscow with such rhetoric. A year earlier, in Ankara, Nazarbayev addressed a session of the Turkic Council and emphatically reiterated the words of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the founder of the Republic of Turkey, who said, “The time will come when all Turkic people will...
