CHRISTIAN PROSELYTISM IN KAZAKHSTAN
By Sebastien Peyrouse (1/25/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: There are one or even several Baptist and Adventist churches in every town of Kazakhstan. Pentecostal communities are also widespread, the most ubiquitous being the community of Evangelical Christians called “of the spirit of the apostles”, which has groups in Almaty and Karaganda. The Pentecostal movement is also well represented inside the Korean minority, in particular by the Sun Bok Ym church.RUSSIA’S ENERGY GAMBIT: IT WON’T WORK IN AZERBAIJAN
By Fariz Ismailzade (1/25/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: Following the Georgian and Ukrainian velvet revolutions and the serious deterioration of Russia’s influence in these republics, Kremlin strategists have decided to increase the price of energy supplies to select former Soviet republics. This was done in an effort both to show to the former vassals where the real power center in their neighborhood lies, and to discourage their aspirations to join Western institutions such as NATO and the EU. The policy of using energy tools for geopolitical dominance over former Soviet republics began in earnest with President Putin’s presidency in 2000.POLITICAL VIOLENCE ON THE RISE IN KYRGYZSTAN
By Anara Tabyshalieva (1/25/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: In the post-Soviet setting, the rise of criminal groups constitutes a serious security threat to the government, especially in small states like Kyrgyzstan where security forces were practically unable to stop the growth of organized crime in the last fifteen years. Criminal groups have recruited many unemployed sportsmen in their patronage networks since the sports industry inherited from Soviet times declined rapidly. Not surprisingly, criminals penetrated into sport associations as their sponsors and supporters.POST-ELECTION KAZAKHSTAN: TOWARD A DEMOCRATIC BREAKTHROUGH?
By S. Frederick Starr (1/11/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
BACKGROUND: To take root, democracy must move beyond the national level and be accompanied by a degree of decentralization, in which more decisions affecting local life are made and implemented at local levels, and under which provincial, district, and city administrations enjoy the power to levy certain taxes to meet local needs. And it must also be translated into self-government, under which the provincial and district electorates gain the right to elect governors (akims) and district heads without interference from Astana. Outside the Baltic states, neither decentralization nor self-government has made headway in the former Soviet Union.Visit also
Staff Publications
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.
Analysis Svante E. Cornell, "Promise and Peril in the Caucasus," AFPC Insights, March 30, 2023.
Oped S. Frederick Starr, Putin's War In Ukraine and the Crimean War), 19fourtyfive, January 2, 2023
Oped S. Frederick Starr, Russia Needs Its Own Charles de Gaulle, Foreign Policy, July 21, 2022.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Rethinking Greater Central Asia: American and Western Stakes in the Region and How to Advance Them, June 2022
Oped Svante E. Cornell & Albert Barro, With referendum, Kazakh President pushes for reforms, Euractiv, June 3, 2022.
Oped Svante E. Cornell Russia's Southern Neighbors Take a Stand, The Hill, May 6, 2022.
Silk Road Paper Johan Engvall, Between Bandits and Bureaucrats: 30 Years of Parliamentary Development in Kyrgyzstan, January 2022.
Oped Svante E. Cornell, No, The War in Ukraine is not about NATO, The Hill, March 9, 2022.
Analysis Svante E. Cornell, Kazakhstan’s Crisis Calls for a Central Asia Policy Reboot, The National Interest, January 34, 2022.
Book S. Frederick Starr and Svante E. Cornell, Strong and Unique: Three Decades of U.S.-Kazakhstan Partnership, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, December 2021.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, S. Frederick Starr & Albert Barro, Political and Economic Reforms in Kazakhstan Under President Tokayev, November 2021.