News Digest
FORMER GEORGIAN INTERIOR MINISTER RELEASED FROM PRISON
By empty (1/4/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Former Georgian Interior Minister Koba Narchemashvili was released on bail after paying a fine of 300,000 laris ($165,000) to \"compensate for the financial loss\" he is alleged to have caused the Georgian state. Narchemashvili, who was interior minister from November 2001 to November 2003, has been imprisoned for the last 2 1/2 months after his arrest on charges of corruption and abuse of office. He was also charged with \"customs violations\" for the alleged illegal import of tear gas from Azerbaijan during the anti-Shevardnadze street protests in Tbilisi in November 2003.422 TAJIKS RETURNED HOME IN COFFINS FROM RUSSIA IN 2004
By empty (1/4/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A spokesperson for Tajikistan\'s Interior Ministry told Asia Plus-Blitz on 4 January that the bodies of 422 Tajik citizens were returned to Tajikistan from Russia in 2004. Sixty Tajiks were killed by violence, 46 died in traffic accidents, 181 perished as a result of illness, and 129 were killed in various accidents. The Interior Ministry totals included bodies returned by air and rail, but not buses and cars.YOUNG DRAFTEES WILL NO LONGER BE SENT TO CHECHNYA - DEFENSE MINISTER
By empty (1/2/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Russian Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said changeover to contract service in some of the army units was one of the most important events in the armed forces in 2004. \"We started implementing a federal program to introduce contract service in individual units last year,\" Ivanov told Interfax. The changeover was carried out in the 42nd motorized infantry division and other units based in Chechnya, he said, noting that \"young draftees no longer serve in Chechnya and will never be sent there again.SOROS GROUP WARNS OF KAZAKH CLOSE
By empty (12/29/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The Open Society Institute (OSI), financed by billionaire George Soros, has accused Kazakhstan officials of trying to close down its local office. A demand for unpaid taxes and fines of $600,000 (£425,000) is politically motivated, the OSI claimed, adding that it paid the money in October. The organisation has found itself in trouble after being accused of helping to topple Georgia\'s former president.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.