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54 I Eurasia bne April 2019
decade, imply territorial concessions from the Armenian sides in exchange for the right to self-determination of Nagorno-Karabakh through a delayed, legally binding referendum. Other important components include an interim status for Karabakh before
the final plebiscite, a land corridor between Karabakh and Armenia, the return of refugees, and the deployment of an international peacekeeping
force in the conflict zone. Even amid a brief moment of optimism, it remains practically impossible to reach any such agreement along these lines in the near future.
Azerbaijan has ruled out the possibility of accepting any legal status for Nagorno- Karabakh outside its jurisdiction. Baku has repeated stated that it would only accept Karabakh’s autonomy within Azer- baijan’s international border. However, this is considered unacceptable for the Armenian sides. For Armenia, Nagorno- Karabakh's status outside Azerbaijan and its security are top priorities. Moreover, the political environment has evolved in recent years in a way that no Armenian leader has the capacity to sign a peace deal which includes territorial conces- sions to Azerbaijan – even if it were
in exchange for Nagorno-Karabakh's
internationally recognized, independent status. Azerbaijan’s bellicose rhetoric and large armament purchases over the last decade have persuaded most Armenians that Azerbaijan is uninterested in peace and poses an existential, civilizational risk to Armenians. As a result, a consen- sus has emerged that considers both the territory of the former Nagorno-Kara- bakh Autonomous Oblast as well as the territories taken by Armenian forces to be essentially inseparable and mutually criti- cal for Armenia’s strategic depth.
The temporary bonhomie aside, Arme- nian and Azerbaijani leaders perfectly
to gain access to the Uzbek telecoms market.
“Moscow-based Mobile TeleSystems PJSC (MTS), the largest mobile telecom- munications company in Russia and an issuer of publicly traded securities in
the United States, and its wholly owned Uzbek subsidiary, KOLORIT DIZAYN INK LLC (KOLORIT), have entered into resolutions with the Department of Justice and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and agreed to pay
a combined total penalty of $850mn to resolve charges arising out of a scheme to pay bribes in Uzbekistan,” the DOJ said in a statement.
MTS is the third foreign telecoms investor to be punished for paying
the president’s daughter off. The company had been expecting to be forced to settle the case and had put aside reserves to pay the fine in advance. The investigation has been running for several years and the imposition of
a fine on MTS is not related to the current sanctions regime imposed on Russia by the US. The Russian company’s shares are traded on the US stock exchange, exposing it to punitive measures associated with the US Corrupt Foreign Practices Act.
“These agreements mark the closure
of the investigations into the Company’s acquisition and operation of its former subsidiary in Uzbekistan during the period from 2004 to mid-2012. In
Russia’s MTS pays $850mn fine for bribing Uzbekistan’s Gulnara Karimova
Ben Aris in Berlin
Russia’s leading mobile phone company Mobile TeleSystems (MTS) has agreed to pay a $850mn fine to the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to settle a case connected to bribes the company paid to the now
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jailed Gulnara Karimova, the daughter of Uzbekistan's former president Islam Karimov, the company said on March 7.
The company was accused of paying millions of dollars in bribes to Karimova