By Slavomir Horak (5/3/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

BACKGROUND:Purges in authoritarian regimes such as that of Turkmenistan are a standard tool used for their survival. Except for recurrent deprivation of middle and lower rank officials of their positions, several great waves of high-level purges have been observed in Turkmenistan in the almost fifteen years of its independence. The trials started as early as in 1992, when then-prime minister Khan Ahmedov and his circle were forced to leave their chairs.

By Pavel K. Baev (5/3/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

BACKGROUND:On April 16, a referendum on merger was conducted in the Irkutsk oblast and Ust-Orda Buryat autonomous okrug, and in both regions the overwhelming majority of voters approved the proposal. The result is hardly surprising since this political technology was already successfully tested in Perm, Krasnoyarsk and Kamchatka that all confidently incorporated smaller autonomous okrugs. What was surprising was the amount of political resources invested by the federal center in advancing these projects, including high-level visits and such generous ‘presidential gifts’ as a new bridge across Angara and an oncology clinic.

By Richard Weitz (4/19/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

BACKGROUND: In an interview published in the local Aki-press agency on February 19, 2006, the head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission in Kyrgyzstan, Markus Mueller, once more expressed concern over persistent instability in the country. He called for a dialogue between the president, prime minister, parliament, and other major Kyrgyz political actors engaged in the country’s protracted and sometimes violent political struggle since the March 2005 “Tulip Revolution.” Mueller said that the OSCE headquarters in Vienna also is “worried about the situation” in Kyrgyzstan.