News Digest
GEORGIAN ECONOMISTS END HUNGER STRIKE
By empty (1/17/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Six Georgian economists have abandoned the hunger strike they began last week to protest the government\'s plans to sell several major enterprises to foreign investors. But they pledged to continue their efforts to prevent those privatizations, which they termed short-sighted. The six specifically expressed concern at the prospect that Russian companies might acquire Georgian assets, arguing that \"Russian special services will use the privatized companies to cause political and economic destabilization and put political pressure on Georgia.ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK PRESENTS FEASIBILITY STUDY FOR TRANS-AFGHANPIPELINE
By empty (1/17/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Turkmenistan\'s government announced in a press release that the British company Penspen has completed a feasibility study of the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan pipeline and presented it to the energy ministers of Afghanistan, India, Pakistan, and Turkmenistan. The 1,680-kilometer pipeline, running from Turkmenistan to Fazilka, India on the Indian-Pakistani border, will cost $3.3 billion and have an annual transport capacity of 33 billion cubic meters of natural gas.TAJIK ELECTION COMMISSION BEGINS REGISTERING CANDIDATES
By empty (1/17/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Tajikistan\'s Central Election Commission (CEC) has begun to register candidates for participation in 27 February parliamentary elections. Muhibullo Dodojonov, head of the CEC secretariat, told the news agency that the CEC has registered 21 party-slate candidates for the ruling People\'s Democratic Party, 15 for the Islamic Renaissance Party, nine for the Communist Party, seven for the Social-Democratic Party, and four each for the Socialist and Democratic Parties. Another 209 candidates have been nominated for races in single-mandate constituencies.KAZAKH PRESIDENT ORDERS INQUIRY INTO BORDER SHOOTING
By empty (1/15/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
President Nursultan Nazarbaev on 15 January ordered an investigation into an incident on 14 January that left one Uzbek citizen dead on the Kazakh-Uzbek border. A Kazakh Foreign Ministry press release on 14 January stated that an Uzbek citizen identified as Muhammadov was shot and killed by Kazakh border guards as they attempted to \"thwart contraband activities.\" The press release noted that Kazakh border guards briefed their Uzbek colleagues on the incident and that the two sides were set to start a joint investigation on 15 January.Visit also
Staff Publications
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Greater Central Asia as A Component of U.S. Global Strategy, October 2024.
Analysis Laura Linderman, "Rising Stakes in Tbilisi as Elections Approach," Civil Georgia, September 7, 2024.
Analysis Mamuka Tsereteli, "U.S. Black Sea Strategy: The Georgian Connection", CEPA, February 9, 2024.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, ed., Türkiye's Return to Central Asia and the Caucasus, July 2024.
Book Svante E. Cornell, ed., "The Changing Geopolitics of Central Asia and the Caucasus" AFPC Press/Armin LEar, 2023.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell and S. Frederick Starr, Stepping up to the “Agency Challenge”: Central Asian Diplomacy in a Time of Troubles, July 2023.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.