News Digest
GEORGIAN PREMIER REPORTS ON PROGRESS IN AMNESTY PROGRAM
By empty (10/27/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania announced on 27 October that the government has secured the return of over $500 million in property and assets from former state officials. Prime Minister Zhvania explained that the return of the \"illegally acquired property\" consists of buildings, private homes, and enterprises acquired by several former state officials \"who have made a fortune through drug business, arms trafficking,\" and other incidents of corruption. The return of the property and assets stems from the Georgian government\'s amnesty program, which has led to negotiated settlements with former ministers and officials of the government of former President Eduard Shevardnadze.TAJIKISTAN GEARS UP TO ISSUE MORE PASSPORTS
By empty (10/27/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A source in Tajikistan\'s Interior Ministry told Asia Plus-Blitz on 27 October that Tajik citizens who reside in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Russia, and Uzbekistan will soon be able to obtain foreign passports there. More than 20 centers have been set up to issue passports in Tajikistan itself. The Interior Ministry has already used 42,600 of the 63,000 passport blanks it had on hand to issue passports; an additional 200,000 blanks have been ordered from Kazakhstan.WORLD BANK ADDRESSES TAJIK POVERTY
By empty (10/28/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Michael Mills, a World Bank economist for Central Asia, presented an updated assessment of poverty in Tajikistan at a conference in Dushanbe on 28 October. Although poverty has fallen 17 percent since 1999, Tajikistan remains the poorest country in Central Asia, the report notes. In 2003, 64 percent of the population lived on no more than $2.UZBEK JOURNALIST GRANTED U.S. ASYLUM
By empty (10/27/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Ruslan Sharipov, an independent Uzbek journalist whose imprisonment in 2003 sparked international outrage, arrived in the United States last week, the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) announced in a 25 October press release. \"We are relieved that Mr. Sharipov is beyond the reach of the Uzbek authorities, and we hope that he can one day return to a free and democratic Uzbekistan,\" said Kajsa Tornroth, director of press freedom programs for WAN.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.