News Digest
TAJIK OFFICIAL SAYS MOST DRUGS BEING TRAFFICKED THROUGH AREAS GUARDED BY RUSSIANS
By empty (9/15/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Rustam Nazarov, director of Tajikistan\'s Drug Control Agency, told a news conference on 15 September that up to 90 percent of the contraband drugs being trafficked into Tajikistan from Afghanistan are being brought in through areas guarded by Russian border troops. Nazarov attributed this to the successful blocking of the highway to Osh in neighboring Kyrgyzstan as a drug-transit route. He quoted international estimates that 70 percent of Afghanistan\'s drug output is exported through Iran and Pakistan, with 30 percent passing through Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan.ATOMIC ENERGY MINISTER DEFENDS IRAN
By empty (9/15/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Russian Atomic Energy Minister Aleksandr Rumyantsev has once again defended Iran from charges that it is violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty (NPT), telling ITAR-TASS on 15 September that \"there is no convincing evidence to justify complaints against Iran\" by the United States and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Speaking at the IAEA\'s general conference in Vienna, Rumyantsev denied that nuclear cooperation between Iran and Russia, which is helping build the Bushehr nuclear-power plant, violates international law. He even insisted that \"under the IAEA charter, nuclear powers are obliged to help other states develop nuclear power for peaceful purposes.KYRGYZ OFFICIALS CONCERNED ABOUT ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
By empty (9/13/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Officials and migration experts in southern Kyrgyzstan are concerned over the growing numbers of illegal immigrants into that part of the country, according to the UN news agency IRIN. The officials warned that the immigrants, who come primarily from Uzbekistan and Tajikistan in search of work, are causing reductions in local wage rates and worsening the socioeconomic situation, which could result in destabilization. According to these officials, 4,000-5,000 Uzbek citizens are working in the areas near the border of the two countries, earning less than $1 a day, if they are paid at all.KYRGYZ PARLIAMENT COMMITTEE CONFIRMS PRESIDENT CANNOT RUN AGAIN
By empty (9/12/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The Government Affairs Committee of the lower house of Kyrgyzstan\'s parliament confirmed on 11 September that President Askar Akaev is not eligible to run for president again in 2005, RFE/RL\'s Kyrgyz Service reported. According to committee Chairman Absamat Masaliev, Akaev\'s present term is illegal. The Kyrgyz Constitution allows a president only two terms in office, but the Kyrgyz Supreme Court ruled prior to the last presidential election that Akaev\'s first two terms should not be counted, because those elections took place before the adoption of the present constitution.Visit also
Staff Publications
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.
Analysis Svante E. Cornell, "Promise and Peril in the Caucasus," AFPC Insights, March 30, 2023.
Oped S. Frederick Starr, Putin's War In Ukraine and the Crimean War), 19fourtyfive, January 2, 2023
Oped S. Frederick Starr, Russia Needs Its Own Charles de Gaulle, Foreign Policy, July 21, 2022.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Rethinking Greater Central Asia: American and Western Stakes in the Region and How to Advance Them, June 2022
Oped Svante E. Cornell & Albert Barro, With referendum, Kazakh President pushes for reforms, Euractiv, June 3, 2022.
Oped Svante E. Cornell Russia's Southern Neighbors Take a Stand, The Hill, May 6, 2022.
Silk Road Paper Johan Engvall, Between Bandits and Bureaucrats: 30 Years of Parliamentary Development in Kyrgyzstan, January 2022.
Oped Svante E. Cornell, No, The War in Ukraine is not about NATO, The Hill, March 9, 2022.
Analysis Svante E. Cornell, Kazakhstan’s Crisis Calls for a Central Asia Policy Reboot, The National Interest, January 34, 2022.
Book S. Frederick Starr and Svante E. Cornell, Strong and Unique: Three Decades of U.S.-Kazakhstan Partnership, Central Asia-Caucasus Institute, December 2021.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, S. Frederick Starr & Albert Barro, Political and Economic Reforms in Kazakhstan Under President Tokayev, November 2021.