Field Reports
NEW WAVE OF VIOLENCE IN SOUTH OSSETIA
By Kakha Jibladze (2/7/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
On February 3, two civilians were reportedly injured in the latest round of attacks in the conflict zone over the past few weeks. South Ossetian de facto authorities are blaming Georgian forces for starting the attack, which resulted in one Ossetian being injured, while officially Tbilisi is blaming the separatists for starting the mortar fire that lead to one ethnic Georgian being injured.The past week was underscored by such attacks: three to date and all unresolved with both sides blaming the other.
HIPC IN KYRGYZSTAN IS DOOMED TO FAIL
By Erica Marat (2/7/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Although the HIPC’s main goal is to write off part of Kyrgyzstan’s external debt and reform economic and administrative sectors, the initiative has turned into a matter of international cooperation preferences and domestic disputes over the national identity.On the international level, the initiative is potentially harmful to Kyrgyzstan’s relations with Russia. According to Andrey Grozin, representative of the Moscow Institute of the Commonwealth Independent States (CIS), the HIPC is against Russia’s interests.
NEWMONT MINING - 0, UZBEKISTAN – 1
By Benjamin Abner (2/7/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The Muruntau mine, one of the largest open pit gold mines in the world, lies 250 miles west of Tashkent, near the city of Zarafshan. Under excavation by the Soviet Union since 1969, Newmont Mining Corporation’s involvement began in 1990 when a Newmont geologist joined the first group of Western experts to visit the mine. Newmont was the first overseas company to enter into a joint venture in any part of the Former Soviet Union when it signed an agreement with Uzbekistan in February 1992.A HOUSING CRISIS IN TAJIKISTAN?
By Bakhtiyor Naimov (1/24/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Four-room apartments are worth as much as US$ 400,000. Given that an average monthly salary in Tajikistan equals US$ 110 and GDP per capita, according to the National Bank of Tajikistan, is US$ 330 per month, elite apartments seem alien to Tajikistan’s realities. The period during the civil war and immediately after the signing of the peace accord, when one could buy an apartment in the center of Dushanbe for as little as US$ 1500, is long passed.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.