By empty (12/8/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Parliament deputies expressed collective concern on 7 December over the confrontation in Georgia\'s Marneuli Raion on 3 December in which an elderly Azerbaijani woman was shot dead. They accused Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili of failing to abide by his pre-election pledge to end discrimination against Georgia\'s 500,000-strong Azerbaijani community. As one example of such discrimination, parliament speaker Murtuz Alesqerov noted that not a single Azerbaijani was hired to work on the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipeline.

By empty (12/7/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

In his first public reaction to the Ukrainian Supreme Court\'s 3 December decision to nullify the second round of Ukraine\'s presidential election, President Vladimir Putin, at a 6 December press conference in Ankara, Turkey, told journalists that he considers Western support for the \"orange revolution\" in Kyiv to be \"intolerable,\" RTR and other media reported. \"One can play the role of a mediator but one must not meddle and apply pressure. Only the people of any country -- and this includes Ukraine in the full sense -- can decide their fate,\" Putin said.

By empty (12/8/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Deputies in Kyrgyzstan\'s Legislative Assembly (lower chamber of parliament) decided on 7 December that an agreement on relations with Kazakhstan signed in December 2003 requires amendment before it can be ratified, RFE/RL\'s Kyrgyz Service reported. Deputy Ishenbai Kadyrbekov said that the agreement, which Kazakhstan has already ratified, fails to take into account Kyrgyzstan\'s interests on issues of labor migration, transit for Kyrgyz passengers, and goods through Kazakhstan, and joint use of water resources. (RFE/RL).