By Erica Marat (4/23/2009 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Following a short lull after president Barack Obama’s inauguration in January, Moscow-controlled mass media outlets renewed their overconfident and detracting reports about the United States. In the first few days after Obama’s official inauguration, most Russian media outlets were trying to formulate their opinion about the new American leader. The short hesitation was followed by renewed anti-U.

By Suhrob Majidov (4/23/2009 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The last day for Tajik banks to disburse the credits received from the Government last year to finance the cotton farms in Tajikistan was 1 April 2009. When the deadline of repayment was reached, the largest Tajik banks requested that their debts be restructured or, at least, to extend the repayment term until the end of the year. The two largest banks in Tajikistan – Agroinvestbank and Orienbank – which provided the largest amount of credits to cotton farms, announced that they are facing serious difficulties in credit repayments due to an inability to extract funds from the cotton farms.

By Erkin Akhmadov (4/8/2009 issue of the CACI Analyst)

As part of the annual state program agenda, the year 2009 was announced as “The Year of Improvement and Development of the Agricultural Sector” in Uzbekistan. Therefore, a number of legislative acts, projects and initiatives were directed at improving working and living conditions for people in rural areas. As was highlighted by President Karimov, issues of paramount importance include those related to further development of infrastructure in the countryside: “housing construction, supply of natural gas, drinking water, energy, reparation of the roads, transport and communication services…”.