For over three decades, the US Helsinki Commission has promoted the former Soviet states’ compliance with international human rights norms. Now the commission appears to be expanding the scope of its mission to include economic affairs.
It seems the $315 million contract awarded by the Pentagon to a controversial and secretive fuel-supplier is only part of the story about future operations at Kyrgyzstan’s Manas Transit Center.
Mina Corp, the controversial supplier of jet fuel at the Manas Transit Center in Kyrgyzstan, is getting a double-dose of good news. Not only has the company secured a new supply contract worth over $315 million, a Kyrgyz government investigation into possible improper business practices concerning Manas fuel operations has stalled.
In a move that could strain Washington’s relationship with Kyrgyzstan, a key Central Asian ally, the Pentagon opted November 3 to award a new fuel-supply contract to a company that is already at the center of a US congressional probe.
A US Embassy statement in late October doesn’t seem to have defused tensions in Armenia over a controversial YouTube video clip that shows US Vice-President Joe Biden claiming that Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan asked him not to push the issue of genocide recognition with Turkey.
The holder of the main fuel-supply contract at the Manas Transit Center in Kyrgyzstan, a critical logistics hub for the US and NATO war effort in Afghanistan, operates in a “thick fog of mystery,” according to a report published by the Washington Post.
The president of Armenia has all but accused the vice president of the United States of lying about a phone conversation the two men had, reigniting a controversy about the Armenian government's motivations in pursuing a rapprochement with Turkey.
Officials in Georgia harbor ambitions of turning the South Caucasus country into a global cultural center, but those plans took a big hit when a deal to bring the New York Philharmonic to Tbilisi imploded recently. Now, Georgian officials are scrambling to repair the damage done to the country’s image.
Representatives of the Russian energy giant Gazprom confirm that the company is poised to participate in a joint venture to supply fuel to the US-run Manas Transit Center, a key logistics hub for US and NATO forces in Afghanistan.
Every year for the past 29 years, top US and Turkish government, military and business figures have gathered in Washington, DC, to discuss bilateral relations. This year’s meeting was the tensest in years, prompting some participants to express concern that Turkey’s once solid ties to the West are fraying, and Ankara is adopting a more Eastern-oriented geopolitical course.
