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Silk Road Intelligencer.SECURITY: Conscript sentenced for mass murder

>>A guilty verdict hasnt stopped questions over the

murder of 14 soldiers in a remote outpost

Vladislav Chelakh may have confessed to the killing of 14soldiers and a park ranger at a remote outpost on the

border with China in May and a court on Dec. 11 in the

southern city of Taldykorgan may also have found him

guilty but doubt still lingers.

The case has gripped Kazakhstan and many still believe

that Chelakh, a thin 20-year-old army conscript, couldnt

have killed that number of armed soldiers and a park

ranger in his nearby hunting lodge.

In his initial confession, Chelakh described how he had

snapped after intense bullying. He had shot dead a sentry

and then killed other soldiers sleeping inside the

outpost.He was certainly the only survivor. The authorities

found him a few days after the attack with cash and a

stolen laptop. They also said that he had boasted of the

killings to a fellow inmate while waiting for the trial to

begin.

Chelakh, though, soon retracted his confession, which he

said he had made under duress.

Alternative theories have been promoted by onlookers for

the murders. How is it, they have said, that a conscript

could kill 14 armed men? Alternative theories floating

around are that either smugglers or Islamic extremists

killed the soldiers.There are obvious flaws in these theories too.

Regardless, Chelakh has begun a life sentence in one of

Kazakhstans most perplexing crime mysteries.

TELECOMS: Kcells London IPO

>>Kcells IPO marks an important step forward for Kazakh

business

It may have floated at the lower end of its proposed price

range, but Kcells IPO in London on Dec. 12 was important

as it allowed Western investors access to a major Kazakh

company that wasnt focused on banking or natural

resources.Global depositary receipts for Kcell sold for $10.50,

the bottom of a range that had been given an upper

estimate of $13. Shortly after the IPO, though, prices had

already risen, showing investors appetite for the stock.

And this is important. The global economy may be

floundering but investors still clearly believe that

buying stock in Kazakhstans largest mobile operator is

worth the risk. The Kazakh economy has been growing

steadily at roughly 5% a year and, although there have

been murmurings, unrest and volatility have been kept to a

minimum. Kazakhstan, then, investors appear to have

decided, is a decent place to build a mobile phonenetwork.

In all, the IPO earned Swedish telecoms company

TeliaSonera $525m for the 25% stake in the company that it

sold off. It now owns roughly 62% of Kcell.

ENERGY: Pipeline to China

China agreed to lend Kazakhstan

$1.8b to build a gas pipeline

across the country, Bloomberg newsagency reported quoting the Kazakh

state energy transport company

KazTransGaz (Dec. 13). The pipeline

will run from Beineu in the west

to Shymkent in the south of

Kazakhstan, part of a pipeline

network that will stretch to China.

INT. RELATIONS: Baikonur quandaries

Confusion reigned over Kazakhstans

plans for Baikonur, the space

rocket launch site in the south thatit has leased to Russia since the

collapse of the Soviet Union in

1991. At the start of the week,

media reported that Kazakhstan

wanted to run the site jointly with

Russia, a story it denied later in

the week (Dec. 13).

MEDIA: Crackdown continues

The Kazakh authorities closed down

the satellite TV station K-plus,

local media reported, continuing

their crackdown on opposition media

outlets (Dec. 12). K-plus, like the

other Kazakh opposition TV channel

Stan TV, broadcast its programmes

via the internet.

RELIGION: Tighening worship

Forum18, the Oslo-based religion

news agency, reported that the

Kazakh authorities had started

closing down Christian and Muslim

places of worship which had failed

last months re-registration

process (Dec. 11). The authorities

in Kazakhstan said they needed to

re-register religious groups to

clampdown on extremism.

SOCIETY: Renaming Astana

A civic group, which Radio Free

Europe/Radio Liberty described as

"state-controlled", proposed

renaming Astana, the capital city,

as Nazarbayev (Dec. 11). Astana,

which means capital in Kazakh, isone of President Nursultan

Nazarbayevs pet projects. His

critics have accused him of

creating a personality cult.

Issue no. 039 (with The Conway Bulletin no. 117)

Dec. 14 2012 (covering Dec. 8 - Dec. 13)

Edited in London

editor@theconwaybulletin.com

www.theconwaybulletin.com Copyright 2012The Conway Bulletin, 12 Melcombe Place, London, NW1 6JJ

Your weekly newssheet covering the most important news from Kazakhstan

(formerly Kazakhstan News Extra)