By empty (2/7/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

A group of 100 Uzbek women blocked traffic in Andijon on 4 February to protest new commercial regulations that they say are depriving them of their livelihood, RFE/RL\'s Uzbek Service reported. The women complained that new regulations require them to buy a trading place at the market for up to $5,000, an unrealistic sum for traders whose inventory is only worth $50 to $60. The women say they depend on small-scale trade because there is no other work in the region.

By empty (2/7/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Chechen administration says there will be no negotiations with the leaders of separatists. \"The stand of the national administration is invariable - there will be no political contacts with Maskhadov and his circle,\" Chechen State Council Chairman Taus Jabrailov told Interfax by telephone. He commented on a Monday interview by Chechen separatist leader Aslan Maskhadov.

By empty (2/4/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Moscow regards the airing of an interview with Chechen warlord Shamil Basayev on British TV as direct media support for terrorists, the Russian Foreign Ministry said in a Friday press release. \"We consider the step as direct information support for terrorists operating in the North Caucasus,\" the ministry said. \"In the present conditions, any attempts to justify giving a platform to terrorists, whose hands are stained with the blood of innocent victims, including children, by references to freedom of speech look cynical, to put it mildly,\" the ministry said.