With Spring session of #Mongolia parliament under way, recall that
@marissa_j_smith , Bulgan B and I have provided bios of cabinet members following formation of coalition government last summer.
https://mongoliafocus.com/2024/08/oyun-erdene-cabinet-bios/
https://mongoliafocus.com/2024/07/pm-oyun-erdenes-multi-party-cabinet/
Discussions of #Mongolia draft media freedom law continue. T Mendel (Centre for Law and Democracy 
) offers perspective on that draft.
Weak:
-Art 5.1 on “principles” but actually restricts journo work
-many provisions in draft unduly vague or general
-quasi-constitutional, "should set out a broad range of governing standards for media freedom, which other laws must then comply with"
MP/frm pres Kh Battulga holds/held license for lignite deposit Togrog Nuur (Төгрөг нуур)? Never heard of that deposit in Tov before.
Now, CabSec N Uchral calling out Battulga's campaign for increased state deposits/contributions to Natl Wealth Fund.
gogo.mn reports on recent analysis by Mongolian Fact-Checking Center that looks at social media accounts that post w/ significant pro-Russian agenda.
Frequent topics: Ukraine, mining, Eurasian Economic Union.
#Mongolia New (SHINEE) Party merges (back) into Democratic Party. Had been a spin-off led by former MPs J Batzandan and Lu Bold.
Fragmentation into factions and frequency of spinn-offs has been challenge for DP almost throughout its history.
isee.mn/n/76195
If you caught news of detention of noorog.mn journalists in #Mongolia on Tuesday in connection to election reporting and are wondering what's going on, Nest Mongolia's Dulamkhorloo and Unumunkh provide some context:
https://mongoliafocus.com/2025/03/guest-post-noorog-detention/
"Noorog.mn ... had previously announced that it would cease political coverage due to mounting pressure. However, the latest raid indicates that authorities continue to scrutinize and suppress independent journalism..."
#MGLpoli @mongoliastudies
Five indicators make up #AcademicFreedomIndex within V-Dem dataset. #Mongolia declining on all of these since 2019.
What's going on here?
Lots of reporting on state of budget in #Mongolia. Significant decreases in revenue, particularly in income tax, VAT, and mine license fees leading to large deficit.
Speaker of #Mongolia parliament D Amarbayasgalan focuses big part of speech opening Spring #УИХ session on, sigh, mega-projects.
https://montsame.mn/mn/read/364212
I remain very skeptical that many of these will actually be constructed, so why are they such a political focus?
Today marks opening of Spring session of #Mongolia parliament.
Preferential loans to agri coops offered as election 
last June.
₮758b (approx €200m) paid to >6000 cooperatives (>22000 herders).
Return of the negdel?
gogo.mn/r/j62m1
A returning fondness for Yu Tsedenbal? A weird case of "Ostalgie", Mongolian-Russian friendship?
@marissa_j_smith takes a closer look, including a Javkhlan ode to the early 1950s thru mid-1980s #Mongolia leader.
https://mongoliafocus.com/2025/03/tsedenbal-filatova-nairamdal/
#Mongolia has created various versions of sovereign wealth funds, but also embraced distribution of resource dividends to population, sometimes as populist election appeal.
In current round of dividend distribution, new option allows recipients to opt to contribute to #sovereignwealthfund instead, embraced v publicly by some politicians but also other citizens.
Does #Mongolia need a new media law? Nest Mongolia's Duyaa takes a look at the draft law that is before parliament.
https://mongoliafocus.com/2025/02/guest-post-press-freedom-bill/
D Tegshbayar comments on newly-released #CPI score for #Mongolia noting that the ranking is not really indicative of real change.
She also highlighted the links between #corruption and #climatechange
Note that she wrote about anti-corruption efforts on our blog two years ago.
https://mongoliafocus.com/2023/04/guest-post-corruption-iaac-strategy-ngos-business/
#Mongolia score
@anticorruption.bsky.social
#Corruption Perception Index unchanged at 33. Ranking 114 (from 121), but year-on-year not meaningful change.
To me this does NOT signal improvement in (perception of) corruption.
Compare to other indices at https://mongoliafocus.com/mongolia-scorecard/ or read about corruption https://mongoliafocus.com/category/corruption/
There have been some protests in Ulaanbaatar this January. @marissa_j_smith takes a closer look what they mean.
https://mongoliafocus.com/2025/01/demonstrations-of-january-2025/
Among grand(iose) government-initiated projects in #Mongolia, the Indian-financed oil refinery near Sainshand stands out at the moment.
iToim points out that project remains far from complete (article claims 20% complete) and interest due on unspent portions of loan.
https://itoim.mn/a/2025/01/20/politic/iml?5e0eda3d2c84bb99159bc0b81b6b25bb
#Mongolia's first president (1992-97) of democratic era, P Ochirbat passed away Jan 17.
https://montsame.mn/mn/read/360012
I had the honour of meeting him in the late 2000s. Certainly impressive for his dedication to the nation.
Hard to tell what the current protests in Ulaanbaatar are about. Unusual enough to have winter protests that are not specifically focused on pollution (tho compare "coal theft" protests in Dec '22), but current protests seem diffuse in focus and smallish.
https://news.mn/r/2776081/
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