Central Asia's week that was #12
Nuclear referendum in Kazakhstan, summit in Astana, death in Kyiv. And shedding light on Kyrgyz repressions, no mass gifts in Uzbekistan. Or ripped jeans in Tajikistan.
So this happened…
Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev announced that a referendum on construction of a nuclear power plant will take place in the autumn, but he did not provide an exact date. He laid out his case in favour of a yes vote, arguing that future economic development would be impossible without a stable supply of electricity. Opponents of the project say it could pose safety and environmental risks. They instead favour greater reliance on renewables. If the government gets the green light from the public, attention will turn to finding a contractor to design and build the power generator. Candidates on the shortlist comprise the China National Nuclear Corporation; Korea Hydro & Nuclear Power; France’s EDF; and Russia’s Rosatom.
Building work on a small-capacity nuclear power plant in Uzbekistan’s Jizzakh region will start in autumn, just as Kazakhstan is holding its referendum, Uzbek nuclear power agency UzAtom announced. This project is being implemented by Rosatom. The contract for construction was signed during a visit to Tashkent by Russian President Vladimir Putin at the end of May. The plant will be composed of six 55 megawatt reactors. While relatively small, that would still allow for the supply of electricity to more than 1 million Uzbek households at current consumption levels.
A bevy of international leaders, including China’s Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, travelled to Astana, Kazakhstan, to attend a heads of state summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Xi wrote in an article ahead of his trip of his optimistic hopes for the “eternal comprehensive strategic partnership” sealed between his country and Kazakhstan. He cited the $41 billon dollars of trade completed last year and a number of major ongoing energy-related infrastructure projects as evidence of their solid relationship. Another summit attendee, United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, said the SCO should be commended for promoting multilateralism and contributing to regional security. It was uncertain if Guterres was to hold talks in Astana with Putin, who is the object of an International Criminal Court arrest warrant over actions carried out during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Aidos Sadykov, a Kyiv-based Kazakh journalist who was strongly critical of the government in Kazakhstan, died in hospital after being shot near his home in the Ukrainian capital 13 days earlier. His wife, Natalya Sadykova, said the death should be on the conscience of President Tokayev. She has alleged previously that she believes the assassination was the work of the Kazakh state. Officials in Astana insist they are cooperating fully with investigations by Ukrainian police. Two suspects have been identified. Both men are Kazakh nationals and travelled to their home country briefly after the shooting. One has been detained, while the other is still at large. But Kazakh authorities said they are not permitted by law to extradite Kazakh nationals.
The head of Russian's Investigative Committee, Alexander Bastrykin, said that around 10,000 migrants who received Russian citizenship have been sent to serve in rear units in Russia's invasion of Ukraine. He described this policy as a “trick that has led to migrants slowly starting to leave Russia.” He provided no details on the provenance of the migrants in question, but it is known that large numbers of people from Central Asia seek to obtain Russian citizenship every year so as to gain eased access to the labour market and simplify their residency status. President Putin earlier this year approved a decree streamlining the process of acquiring citizenship for foreign nationals who enlist in the military.
Kyrgyzstan and the European Union signed an Enhanced Partnership and Cooperation Agreement, which Brussels has described as “an important milestone in the strengthening bilateral relations.” Josep Borrell, the EU’s foreign affairs chief, said Brussels will work with Kyrgyzstan on strengthening the protection of human rights and promoting an open democratic society. A few days after that agreement was signed, a court in Bishkek sentenced self-styled bard poet Askat Zhetigen to three years in prison for purportedly inciting the violent seizure of power. Zhetigen told the court that while he may have been coarse in his posts on social media, this did not amount to calling for toppling the government. Prosecutors had asked for an eight-year prison sentence.
The first cars produced at a plant in Uzbekistan’s Jizzakh region belonging to Chinese electric auto giant BYD have rolled off the production line. The plan is for the factory to produce 50,000 units during its first stage of development, and for that number to reach 500,000 by the third stage. The office of President Shavkat Mirziyoyev said that as the plant develops, more components, including batteries, tyres and seats, will be locally produced.
And there’s this too…
Kyrgyzstan’s parliament has adopted a bill aimed at simplifying the procedure for restoring the legal rights of former Soviet citizens subjected to repression between 1918 and 1953. Backers of the legislation say it will open the way for an objective assessment of the causes and scale of Stalin-era repressions and help the cause of historical justice. The law states that rehabilitation will vindicate victims of political repression, especially those who were shot, convicted, evicted from their place of residence, exiled, or deprived of their property because of their social status and opinions.
Lawmakers in Kazakhstan have voted to ban government workers from gambling. Once the president signs off on the law, any civil servant found to have engaged in gambling, even by placing a bet in a bookmaker’s shop, will be liable for dismissal. The legislation was promoted by a public activist as part of a broader effort to discourage gambling. Kazakhs spent almost 370 billion tenge ($785 million) on games on chance in 2023, around 42 percent less than in 2022. The same legislation contains provisions to prevent underage people from gambling.
A law enforcement officer who came to public prominence as the “the most honest policeman in Shymkent” (a city in southern Kazakhstan) has been sentenced to seven years in prison for seeking to extort a 700,000 tenge ($1,500) bribe. Investigator allege that Azamat Aimbetov threatened to impound a rule-breaking female motorist’s car and place her in prison for 15 days unless she agreed to pay the money. Aimbetov earned his now-tarnished reputation for probity for routinely posting on social media about his principled refusal to accept kickbacks, which is a common practice among Kazakh policemen.
Uzbekistan’s government has banned the practice of encouraging the public to attend mass events by handing out free gifts. Anybody selling goods at "excessively low prices” for advertising purposes will also be liable for punishment, which can include time in jail. This prohibition appears to be a response to an incident in early June, when the handing out of 20,000 soft toys in a Tashkent park precipitated a dangerous crush of children and caused a crippling traffic jam in surrounding streets.
Overspill from the flooding that ravaged several regions of Kazakhstan earlier this year has raised levels at the Caspian Sea by 119 centimetres, the Kazakh Water Ministry said. Officials said the increase in levels was noted mostly in the northeastern parts of the inland sea. An estimated 7.4 billion cubic meters of water entered the Caspian over a period of around two months. Environmentalists have been sounding the alarm about dropping levels in the sea in recent decades. The recent rise only goes a small way toward mitigating this trend, however.
Lawmakers in Tajikistan clarified the terms of a recently adopted law promoting traditional clothing. It is not only religious headwear, such as hijabs, that will be forbidden — ripped jeans and overly revealing clothing will not be allowed either, they say. The legislation itself, however, does not specifically mention items of clothing, suggesting that enforcement will be arbitrary.