By empty (6/24/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Crown Prince and First Deputy Prime Minister Abdallah bin Abd al-Aziz Al Saud met with Nurtai Abikaev, the speaker of Kazakhstan\'s upper house of parliament, on 23 June in Astana to discuss bilateral cooperation and the possibility of Saudi investment in Kazakhstan, Khabar TV reported. \"We plan to undertake the reconstruction and development of the port in Aqtau in order to turn it into a free economic zone and the main economic center in the Caspian region,\" Kazinform quoted Abdallah as saying. The crown prince, who himself owns telecommunications companies, also expressed interest in Kazakhstan\'s cellular communications market.

By empty (6/24/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Duma Deputy Viktor Ilyukhin (Communist), the deputy chairman of the Duma Security Committee, said he was \"bewildered\" by the carelessness of Russian military intelligence (GRU), the Federal Security Service (FSB), and the Interior Ministry troops deployed in Chechnya in light of the deadly raid in Ingushetia, \"Komsomolskaya pravda\" reported. A GRU officer, Colonel Aleksei Zhadin, said his comrades in Chechnya are always on high alert but that in this case the Chechen fighters managed to outsmart them. Military journalist Vladislav Shurygin told \"Komsomolskaya pravda\" that the success of such an operation means that Chechen fighters have agents working in the Russian security services.

By empty (6/23/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Valerii Dil, chairman of parliament\'s Committee on Governance, Legality and Constitutionality, told a 23 June session of parliament that Kyrgyzstan\'s large external debt is hampering the country\'s socioeconomic development. Dil said that the country\'s external debt stood at 76.6 billion soms ($1.