By empty (6/3/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Chechen President Alu Alkhanov has denied a so-called Chechen trace in the recent events in Uzbekistan. \"There is no Chechen trace in Uzbekistan,\" Alkhanov told the press in Pushkin outside St. Petersburg on Friday, commenting on Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov\'s remark on involvement of Chechen terrorists in the Andizhan events.

By empty (6/2/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Russia possesses information indicating that Chechen terrorists were involved in the recent rioting in Uzbekistan, said Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov. \"We have information that Islamic extremists, structures of the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, remnants of the Taliban, and some Chechen terrorists were involved in this,\" Lavrov said at a press conference in Vladivostok, referring to the May 13 rioting in the southern Uzbek city of Andizhan. The Russian, Chinese, and Indian foreign ministers discussed the situation in Central Asia, including Uzbekistan, at a meeting in Vladivostok on Thursday, Lavrov said.

By empty (6/2/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Baku municipal authorities rejected on 2 June a request by three opposition parties to stage a rally and march on 4 June in the city center but gave the green light for holding the event at a motorcycle racetrack on the outskirts of the city. Deputy Baku police chief Yashar Aliev summoned the organizers of the planned rally to warn them that police would intervene to prevent it being held in the original venue, but the three parties subsequently issued a statement reaffirming their intention to congregate as originally planned at the 28 May metro station, the site of a similar rally that was broken up by police two weeks ago. (Turan).