News Digest
FORMER AZERBAIJANI OIL SECTOR HEAD SAYS CASPIAN OPEC UNREALISTIC
By empty (12/31/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev\'s recent proposal that the Caspian littoral states should create a cartel analogous to OPEC to regulate oil production is not feasible at the present time, Sabit Bagirov, a former president of Azerbaijan\'s state oil company SOCAR, told Interfax on 31 December. Bagirov pointed out that \"the Caspian states have not yet reached a level of oil production that could account for a significant share of the market,\" and that it is \"too early\" for Azerbaijan to make specific commitments on export quotas to any organization. But he added that a coordinated policy will be needed by 2010, assuming that Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan attain optimum levels of output by then.FORMER AZERBAIJANI INTERIOR MINISTER PARDONED
By empty (12/30/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Iskander Hamidov was released from jail on 30 December in accordance with a presidential decree pardoning or reducing the sentences of 160 prisoners. Hamidov, chairman of the nationalist Boz Gurd party, was sentenced in September 1995 to 14 years\' imprisonment upon conviction on charges of embezzlement, abuse of his official position, and causing grievous bodily harm. He was retried at the insistence of the Council of Europe, which had designated him a political prisoner, and sentenced in July 2003 to 11 years imprisonment on the same charges.RUSSIAN FOREIGN MINISTRY CRITICIZES STATE DEPARTMENT RELIGIOUS-FREEDOM REPORT
By empty (12/30/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The Foreign Ministry\'s information department on 29 December criticized a U.S. State Department report on international religious freedom for 2003, saying it \"contradicts the spirit of partnership\" between Russia and the United States and is \"counterproductive\" for establishing a \"comprehensive dialogue,\" RBK reported.FORMER FSB OFFICER CLAIMS HE\'S BEEN TORTURED
By empty (12/29/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Aleksandr Goldfarb, acting vice president of the New York-based Foundation for Civil Liberties, told Ekho Moskvy on 27 December that Mikhail Trepashkin, a former Federal Security Service (FSB) lieutenant colonel imprisoned on charges of revealing state secrets, has detailed alleged torture by his jailers. According to Goldfarb, Trepashkin was denied food and water for up to 48 hours, deprived of sleep, kept in sub-zero temperatures, handcuffed in a painful position, and denied a shower for a month. The mistreatment allegedly took place between 30 November and 20 December in the Matrosskaya Tishina Prison and the building of the Moscow District Military Court.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.