By empty (5/18/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Rustavi-2 made public on 18 May details of a new plan to resolve the Abkhaz conflict. Rustavi-2 said that plan, proposed by Moscow, defines Georgia as a federal state within which Abkhazia is a sovereign entity, and is similar to the \"Basic Principles for the Distribution of Competencies between Tbilisi and Sukhumi\" drafted by former UN special representative Dieter Boden. But \"The Georgian Messenger\" on 14 May as cited by Groong claimed the new Russian plan envisages not a federation but a confederation.

By empty (5/17/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Armenian opposition leaders appealed at an unsanctioned rally in Yerevan on 14 May for the population to participate in a planned 21 May march to the presidential palace to demand the resignation of President Robert Kocharian, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. Some opposition leaders are concerned at a recent decline in attendance at ongoing protest rallies. They attribute that decline to the repeated postponement of \"decisive action\" to force Kocharian\'s resignation and to the attempts, which collapsed on 13 May, to defuse tensions between the opposition and the three-party governing coalition by means of negotiations.

By empty (5/14/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbayev brushed aside the issue of a bribes-for-oil-contracts scandal that has dogged his leadership and said he hoped to be re-elected in 2006. Nazarbayev played down the significance of a case due shortly before a US court in which US oil consultant James Giffen is charged with passing more than 78 million dollars (65 million euros) in unlawful payments from US companies to top Kazakh officials. New York city prosecutors last month identified Nazarbayev and former prime minister Nurlan Balgimbayev as the recipients of the alleged payments made by, among others, the Mobil Corporation, which has since been incorporated into ExxonMobil.