By Nicklas Norling (11/2/2011 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The Viking Railroad, connecting Lithuania with Ukraine via Belarus, is not among the most well-publicized transportation projects in the former Soviet Union but it is emerging as one of the most important. Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Kazakhstan have recently announced their willingness to partake and volumes are steadily expanding. The potential gains are also significant.
By Mikayel Zolyan (11/2/2011 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Negotiations between Armenia’s government and the main opposition force, the Armenian National Congress, have come to a halt. After a week of day-and-night rallies, demanding the immediate resignation of the incumbent president and snap elections, the opposition eventually announced that it was getting ready for the regular parliamentary elections scheduled for May 2012. These developments were taking place against the background of an apparent rift within the government camp, caused by rumors about the possible return of Armenia’s second president Robert Kocharyan into active politics.
By Robert M. Cutler (10/19/2011 issue of the CACI Analyst)
On October 4, Russia’s Prime Minister Vladimir Putin published an article in Izvestiia, “A New Integration Project for Eurasia - The Future Is Being Born Today,” that announces the initiative to create a supranational political structure on top of the CIS Customs Union in which Belarus and Kazakhstan participate along with Russia. While the prospects for its realization are cloudy at best, the declaration suggests a reorientation of Russian foreign policy strategy under soon-to-be-president Putin that will de-emphasize Europe and the West in general to the extent possible.
BACKGROUND: Throughout the 1990s in the post-Soviet jumble, continuing configurations and reconfigurations of integration and cooperation arrangements appeared on and disappeared from the scene, of which the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) is likely the best known.
By Alexander Sodiqov (10/19/2011 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Muhiddin Kabiri’s reelection as chairman of the Islamic Revival Party of Tajikistan signals that he has managed to foster internal cohesion within the party and consolidate his power. It also signals that Kabiri’s efforts to reform the group find broad support. Kabiri appears set to use this support to continue transforming the IRPT into a conventional political party, including by deemphasizing its Islamic identity.
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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