Author: Aijan Karimov

Libya’s state-owned oil company, the National Oil Corporation (NOC), had established last month a new program office, but multiple foreign press reports claim that one of the staff running the office is embroiled in a major fraud case in Kazakhstan. Peter Sztyk, a Canadian lawyer and entrepreneur who also goes by the name “Petro”, has joined a group of foreign consultants who will manage the Office of Strategic Programs, which the NOC inaugurated in February 15 during a meeting with local oil industry executives in Benghazi. Who is Peter Sztyk? The Canadian lawyer graduated in 1993 from Concordia University with bachelor in…

The Kyrgyz parliament should reject a highly repressive draft law that would interfere with the activities of nongovernmental organizations, Human Rights Watch said today. The law would require organizations to register with the Justice Ministry as “foreign representatives” if they receive funding from abroad and engage in political activity. On May 19, 2023, parliament members registered Making Amendments to Certain Legislative Acts of the Kyrgyz Republic for consideration, known as the draft law on “Foreign Representatives.” Failure to register under the law could result in suspension of the organization’s activities, including its banking operations, for up to 6 months or until it is…

TEHRAN – After ten years, Secretary of Iran’s Supreme National Security Council (SNSC) Ali Shamkhani was replaced with Ali Akbar Ahmadian, a veteran Islamic Revolution Guards Corps commander who is set to transform the security body. Rumors surrounding Shamkhani’s departure first came to the surface in January, when one of his close associates was put to death over espionage for the MI6. Nevertheless, Shamkhani remained in his post and continued to make the headlines by orchestrating a thaw in Iran-Saudi relations. Over the course of his tenure as a top security official, Shamkhani coordinated a lot of national security decisions…

TEHRAN (Tasnim) – A high-ranking Iranian military delegation has traveled to Afghanistan for talks with the Taliban rulers about border issues and mutual cooperation. The delegation, led by Deputy Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Brigadier General Bahram Hosseini Motlaq, held a meeting with the deputy chief of staff of the armed forces of Afghanistan’s caretaker government, Haji Mali Khan Sadiq in Kabul on Saturday. The two sides discussed border cooperation between Iran and Afghanistan. The meeting was held against a backdrop of a dispute over the Taliban’s refusal to provide Iran with its share of water from…

It has been announced that the Kyrgyzstan Government’s Cabinet of Ministers has designated the Ministry of Economy and Commerce responsible for development and implementation of a cluster policy to work on a cluster of 22 ski areas in the country’s Issyk-Kul region over the next five years. No further details on the scale of any of the areas have been released. Known as the ”warm lake”, despite being located at an altitude of 1,600m, the Issyk-Kul lake is the world’s 10th largest and is over 180km long with a shoreline of more than 660km. It is the second-largest mountain lake in…

Thousands of people from predominantly Muslim countries in Central Asia have travelled to Iraq and Syria since 2011 to join the ISIS terrorist group and other extremist organizations. “The 41 children and 18 women coming from Syrian conflict areas have arrived in Kyrgyzstan,” state-run news agency Kabar said, citing the labor ministry. The group was accompanied by security services and foreign ministry staff, Kabar said. The government estimates that at least 800 Kyrgyz citizens have left the former Soviet republic for Syria. The authorities did not specify where in Syria the women and children had been but said the latter…

The draft Law on Non-Commercial Non-Governmental Organizations would introduce burdensome registration and operational restrictions on nongovernmental groups and require existing groups to re-register, raising concerns that authorities could use the process to force some organizations to close. “Kyrgyzstan has been known, and praised, for its vibrant civil society,” said Syinat Sultanalieva, Central Asia researcher at Human Rights Watch. “The government of Kyrgyzstan should drop these plans to limit the way civil society operates and instead honor its international obligations to support freedom of association.” The introduction of the draft law comes amid a serious deterioration in respect for human rights in Kyrgyzstan. The…

Chakan GES, the state-owned hydropower operator of nine small hydro power plants (HPPs), will receive a financial package of €13.8 million, comprising an EBRD sovereign loan of €8.8 million and an investment grant of €5 million. The money will help finance the rehabilitation and modernisation of the Lebedinovskaya HPP, which has an installed capacity of 7.6 MW. The Lebedinovskaya HPP, commissioned in 1943-48, provides power to Bishkek, but its equipment is old, inefficient and urgently in need of replacement. The proposed improvements in productivity will help increase its annual electricity output by 56 per cent, bringing it to 50,300 MWh.…

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization, University of Washington, in collaboration with partner governments, designed this fellowship program to improve people’s health and well-being through digital technologies, and help countries better respond to public health emergencies, the U.S. Embassy in Bishkek said. The first IDASH cohort is composed of 20 mid- to senior-level technical, analytical, and public health staff working at the national level in public health informatics or data science from Central Asia and Eastern Europe. The program kicked off with an in-person workshop in Tbilisi, Georgia April 3-15. Over the course of 12…

19:59 IST, March 28th 2023 India defeat Kyrgyz Republic by 2-0 to lift the Tri-Nation cup India earned their fifth consecutive win on home soil by defeating Kyrgyzstan with a 2-0 margin. This was also the fourth match in a row that saw India returning with a clean sheet. 19:45 IST, March 28th 2023 India vs Kyrgyz Republic: India earn a spot penalty, Chhetri scores India earned a spot penalty in the 82nd minute of the match, which was converted by Sunil Chhetri. The Indian skipper is now the fifth-highest goal scorer of all time in international football with 85…