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The Regions This Week
June 9, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 9
Eurasia
Iran offered to supply blockaded Qatar with food
supplies by sea and air. There was some panic buying in Doha supermarkets after fellow Persian Gulf States broke diplomatic links and cut access points to the tiny peninsular nation in a row over its claimed support for extremists and terror- ists and closeness to Tehran. Iran also allowed Qatar Airways to reroute over 150 flights per day through Iranian airspace.
The Shanghai Stock Exchange is to acquire
a 25.1% stake in Kazakhstan's new stock exchange, set to launch as part of the Astana International Financial Centre (AIFC), a financial services hub to be run as a free economic zone modelled on Dubai’s International Financial Center.
Uzbekistan’s once-powerful but sidelined Dep- uty PM Rustam Azimov has reportedly been shifted to a middling post. The former political heavyweight and big player in economic reforms appears to have been pushed out of the country’s ruling triumvirate by Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev who is moving to consolidate his power. Conservative head of state security service SNB Rustam Inoyatov is the other member of the for- mer triumvirate.
Beijing has made clear it supports Iran’s pro- posed membership of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO), Asia’s largest security bloc jointly led by Russia and China. Iran has observer status in the organisation.
The World Bank cut its 2017 GDP growth pro- jection for Iran by 1.2pp to 4%, noting limited spare capacity in oil production and difficulty in accessing finance weighing on economic expan- sion. It also observed that food price pressures have pushed Iranian annual inflation back into the double digits.
The World Bank raised its expectation for 2017 Kazakh economic growth by 0.2pp to 2.4%, citing
strengthening oil prices, gradual monetary policy easing and an accommodative macroeconomic policy stance. GDP growth last year in Kazakhstan was 1%.
China’s Citic Bank and the investment arm of state-run China Tobacco agreed to buy 60% of Kazakhstan’s Altyn Bank, owned by second larg- est Kazakh lender Halyk Bank. Halyk Bank said it would retain 40% stake of Altyn Bank.
An in-absentia trial of Kazakh fugitive banker and former head of BTA Bank Mukhtar Ablyazov sentenced him to 20 years in prison for crimes including theft of pension assets and savings. Kazakh sovereign wealth fund Samruk-Kazyna took over BTA Bank in 2009 and accused Ablya- zov and subordinates of siphoning off $5bn from the lender.
Kazakhstan agreed to supply 5bn cm of gas to China in 2017. The gas is likely to be exported via Line-C of the Central Asia-China gas pipeline connecting Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Ka- zakhstan. Currently Russia is the main recipient of Kazakh gas.
Armenia and Azerbaijan are closer to war over breakaway province Nagorno-Karabakh than at any point since 1994, the International Crisis Group said. Following the deadly three-day flare- up which left over 200 casualties in April 2016, Baku and Yerevan have failed to find momentum in peace negotiations, it added.
The Georgian government faced assorted pro- tests over its failure to protect Azerbaijani and Turkish dissidents. Protesters were upset that Azerbaijani journalist Afgan Mukhtarli was ab- ducted from central Tbilisi and transported to
a jail in Azerbaijan while days earlier a court ordered Turkish educator Mustafa Cabuk to be handed over to Ankara. It claims he is connected to the US-based cleric it accuses of attempting to stage a coup.