This is going to be a very short post, because there is not much to write about. It is enough to watch… Not only the delicate beauty of Turkmen women who with inborn charm always lower their eyes in the presence of an unknown man. But also at their dresses. These are not clothes worn only on special occasions (maybe with one exception) or to show off. This is how the Turkmen girls dress everyday when going to work, school or to the market.

However, men going to Turkmenistan should bear in mind that in order to receive an official consent to marry a Turkmen girl, it is necessary to pay a fee of 50 thousand dollars. But there is always the traditional way of getting a wife, i.e. to abduct one…

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[inspic=13,left,fullscreen,160]Dusti square in the center of Dushanbe was really crowded on the eve of New Year. This square is famous for the monument of Ismaili Somoni depicted on the photo shot by Babasteve. There was organized a concert of local singers and dancers who entertained the crowd. Law and order was maintained by hundreds of policemen. However it seemed to me that people had no eager to riot and there was no need in police. I was surprised to see very few people drunk and even though there were mostly men I saw no scuffle. The firework at about 11 p.m. put the finishing touch of the celebration.

Most probably it was this last firework on the square. Today the mayor of Dushanbe announced (rus) that this kind of show is never going to be organized.

According to the source, the mayor of the Dushanbe said that the traditional shows in occasion of Independence Day and New Year will be banned in accordance with the Law of RT “On regulation of traditions, festivities and customs”.

This is a continuation of the cultural reform which is going to take us to “I don’t know where”.

[inspic=33,,,0]The end of the past year was marked by an important event in Moscow which has slipped our attention because of the forthcoming Christmas and New Year. However, it is worth reminding about. On 20 December 2007, President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbaev, paid a visit to the Russian capital. As a result of the talks that he held with Vladimir Putin a trilateral agreement was signed between Russia, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan on cooperation in the construction of the Caspian Coastal gas pipeline (from Turkmenistan through Kazakhstan to Russia) which is expected to increase annual exports of Turkmen gas to Russia to 70 billion cubic metres. The deal had been awaited for many months with the initial agreement signed back in May 2007 and the binding deal supposed to have been ready by 1 September. However, this deadline was not met because of a disagreement between Moscow and Ashgabat as to the price of the Turkmen gas.

The mass media, especially in Russia, triumphantly hailed signing of the agreement as a success of the Russian energy policy in Central Asia. But is it really so? I dare doubt it, as there are many more questions and doubts than actual facts. Lets look at some of them.

First, why has Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov not come to Moscow as had earlier been announced? He only talked to Putin and Nazarbaev on the phone. Second, why wasn’t the agreement signed by prime ministers, but just by ministers: Viktor Khristenko, Russia’s Minister of Industry and Energy, Galym Orazbakov, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Industry and Trade and the executive director of Turkmenistan’s State Agency for the Management and Use of Hydrocarbon Resources Bairammyrat Myradov (as Alexey Grivach the author of an article published in the Vremya Novostey daily points out)? Third, why did the President of Kazakhstan not mention a word about the agreement during his press conference while Vladimir Putin stressed its great significance?

Interesting is also the statement by Viktor Khristenko, who said that …

…all decisions related to the project will be made by the end of 2008, and the gas pipeline will be opened by the end of 2010.

This means nothing more than that not all controversial issues were resolved and that detailed negotiations will be continued.

It is also not clear if Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan will be able to supply resources for the gas pipeline. According to the agreement, both countries are supposed to supply up to 10 billion cubic metres of gas. But according to the author of the above mentioned article from the Vremya Novostey it will not be possible due to technical issues.

By the way, what does “up to” mean? It may be 9.9 billion cubic metres, but “up to” may also mean 1 or 2 billion.

Thus, it seems that there was no real breakthrough in the talks on the gas pipeline construction, although Moscow is eager to create such an impression. Everything indicates that what was signed was in fact another memorandum on cooperation to sum up the current talks rather than a binding agreement on the construction of the gas pipeline. The game for the Turkmen gas goes on and it is difficult to tell what is going to happen in 2008.

The Almaty-based International Center for Journalism MediaNet together with the Soros Foundation in Kazakhstan has announced the results of best weblog contest. The competition brought together 30 applications from bloggers running their websites both in Kazakh and in Russian, both personally and in groups.

The second place was won by the Kazakh-language neweurasia. The press-release underscored that our Kazakh-language part, led by Askhat, is “one of the most high-quality blogs updated in Kazakh language, featuring lots of valuable and important infomation”. Most of the blogs are run in Russian in Kazakhstan.

Congratulations, dear authors of the Kazakh-language neweurasia!!!

As usual our President announced his New Year message to the people of Uzbekistan. As usual it was a set of banal words and only naive people could listen to such a nonsense without a sarcasm.

Karimov says that “each of us, gathered for a festive table, unwillingly thoughts returned to the unforgettable events, concerns and the joy of this year.� Yeah, seems to me that Mr.Karimov really laughs at us. Does he really think that by saying these words he can make us believe him, believe all his silly ideas, promises and statements. Oh, gosh!

Every word of the speech makes me cry because I realize that such a person will rule the country and blow our minds with stupid statistics, sayings and “guarantees� of welfare of Uzbekistani people as these ones:

«Summing up the year which ends today we have all the reasons to say that is was in many ways successful for us and left his indelible imprint in the life of the country and society. Thanks to the …labor of our people a big step in ensuring the dynamism of the country’s economy, growth and well-being of the quality of life of people moving along the path of democratic renewal, strengthening the authority of Uzbekistan in the world community was done.»

Our blogger Mashrab last week expressed his interest in ordinary Uzbekistani pensioner Mrs.Ivanova’s letter to Karimov with the title “Why I won’t vote for Karimov� where she compared her own statistics of an economist with official data:

«I read newspapers randomly and some time ago I’ve read out that that inflation in our country is 7%. I thought there must have been a mistake, slip of the pen. I’m an economist with a degree and 40 years experience; I think that if flour before October prices rise was 550 sums (45 U.S. cents) now costs 1200 it means that inflation is 218%. If seed-oil was 1800 sums and now it costs 3800 it means that inflation rate is 211%.»

Karimov told us about “successful implementation of legislation norms for further reforms; about the democracy principles within legislation system, liberalization of all spheres of our life.� but forgot about the situation during pre-election process when opposition wasn’t allowed to participate in it. Also our President forgot to mention about his legitimacy in running the state; forgot about his rude violation of the “main law of the state� Constitution…

«Presidential elections which took place in our country few days ago became an important political test and became a great school and a new step in the construction of free democratic state and civil society in Uzbekistan, where the human being’s interests and human rights are the highest values.

These elections held in accordance with the principles of democracy, transparency and openness, without a doubt, united our people and demonstrated their increased political and legal culture, hopes and aspirations of every citizen of Uzbekistan, their faith in the future of the country, and became a historic event in the life of society.

Today objectively assessing the outcome of the year gained first of all with hard work, milestones and growing potential of the country, we have all the reasons with a sense of duty to look forward with a confidence.»

I can’t even rely on Karimov’s will “to bow low to our people from the bottom of my heart to express the depth of feeling unlimited gratitude to all those who assisted me high. I have no other purpose but to serve true and devoted to you.� because I’ve heard these words not for several but maybe for hundred times said by our President. I don’t believe him anymore. We can only wait… But wait for what?

Translation of Marat’s post on the Russian-language blog.

As it turns out, despite the tremendous amount of funds allocated from the Russia’s state budget and all assurances of the Russian government, the Voluntary Repatriation Program has turned to dust. It was planned that 50,000 people would move to Russia in 2007, but there were only 400 repatriants, which is less than 1%.

The idiotism of those who developed the program is striking. The most attractive regions in Russia had refused to host compatriots, while Moscow and St. Petersburg went even further to prohibit the migrants inflow. It is suggested to settle the compatriots in such boondocks that even those who lived there ever before have already escaped from there.

They could at least take the model of the current Kazakhstan’s program of oralmans (Kazakh term for repatriants) repatriation as a template. The state quota for oralmans is 15,000 families that makes up about 40-60 thousand persons. In total, 155,000 families or more than 600,000 persons have already migrated in. The state quota is equally distributed among the regions.