By Dmitry Shlapentokh (6/27/2012 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The presidents of Ukraine and Belarus, Viktor Yanukovych and Alexander Lukashenko, both visited Turkmenistan in April 2012. Whereas Ukraine is staunchly opposed to Moscow’s planned Eurasian Union and Belarus is part of a Union State with Russia, both countries are in fact interested in reducing their dependence on Russian gas, which Moscow uses not only for economic but also geopolitical domination.
By Emil Souleimanov (6/13/2012 issue of the CACI Analyst)
On June 4 to 6, an intensive shootout occurred on the Azerbaijani-Armenian border in the Gazakh-Tavush area that claimed the lives of five Azerbaijani and three Armenian soldiers. This could be termed just another skirmish in a series of low intensity fighting that costs hundreds of lives on both sides of the conflict.
By Roger N. McDermott (6/13/2012 issue of the CACI Analyst)
On May 15, the presidents of the member countries of the Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) met in Moscow to discuss further initiatives aimed at building the organization’s peacekeeping potential. Kazakhstan’s role in the CSTO, its views on security in Central Asia and how Astana perceives the threats facing the region are among the numerous aspects addressed in the 2011 Military Doctrine.
By Georgiy Voloshin (6/13/2012 issue of the CACI Analyst)
At the end of May, Kazakhstan hosted two important economic events – the 25th Council of Foreign Investors meeting and the Fifth Astana Economic Forum. On these two occasions, the country’s president, Nursultan Nazarbayev, announced upcoming changes in public policy with regard to foreign companies working on Kazakhstan’s lucrative energy market and formulated several proposals concerning the state of the world economy.
The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst is a biweekly publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, a Joint Transatlantic Research and Policy Center affiliated with the American Foreign Policy Council, Washington DC., and the Institute for Security and Development Policy, Stockholm. For 15 years, the Analyst has brought cutting edge analysis of the region geared toward a practitioner audience.
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