By empty (8/18/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

As of 15 August, Chechnya\'s Central Election Commission had registered 13 candidates for the 5 October presidential election. Applications for registration by pensioner Khasan Dadaev and by Shamil Buraev, head of the Achkhoi-Martan District administration, were rejected on the grounds that the two men failed to provide the required information about the bank accounts from which they intended to fund their respective campaigns. On 16 August, Chechen administration head Akhmed-hadji Kadyrov, the clear favorite in the ballot, said Chechen militants are seeking to derail the ballot in a bid to preserve Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov\'s political influence, according to Interfax.

By empty (8/18/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Turkmen Deputy Prime Minister Yolly Gurbanmuradov, who oversees the country\'s oil-and-gas industry, signed an agreement with Gazprom CEO Aleksei Miller in Moscow on 18 August on the reconstruction and expansion of the gas-pipeline system connecting Central Asia with Russia. Development of the pipeline system is a necessary precondition for full implementation of the gas-delivery agreement signed in Moscow in April between Gazprom and Turkmenistan because the existing system does not have the throughput capacity envisioned in that agreement. An additional agreement was signed on 18 August on the delivery by the Russian firm Gazeksport of equipment and services as partial payment for Turkmen gas deliveries in 2004-06.

By empty (8/19/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

In his regular Monday radio interview, President Eduard Shevardnadze criticized parliament deputies on 18 August for failing to enact \"vitally important\" bills, including the budget sequester and the bill he proposed personally that designates bribing voters a criminal offense. He called on deputies to discuss and approve the proposed budget cuts without delay. An International Monetary Fund delegation that visited Georgia earlier this summer made disbursement of the third annual installment of a Poverty Reduction and Growth Facility loan contingent upon enacting budget cuts by 15 August.