News Digest
UZBEKISTAN CONDUCTS MILITARY EXERCISES ON TAJIK AND AFGHAN BORDERS
By empty (7/22/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Uzbekistan is conducting major military exercises near its borders with Tajikistan and Afghanistan, said the head of the Uzbek Defense Ministry\'s press service, Lieutenant Colonel Kamil Djabarov. The exercises reportedly involve several thousand soldiers, including regular army units, Interior Ministry troops, and border guards. The mountainous location was selected because it was the site of attempts by Muslim militants to penetrate into Uzbek territory in 2001, according to Djabarov.RUSSIAN AND OTHER CASPIAN SEA STATES MEET ON DELINEATION ROW.
By empty (7/22/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Russia and the other four states that border the oil-rich Caspian Sea began three days of talks in Moscow on Tuesday on their long-standing dispute over how to divide it up. \"There are still differences on a number of key problems regarding the status of the Caspian,\" Russian Foreign Minister Igor Ivanov said at the opening of the 10th meeting of a working group attended by deputy foreign ministers. Ivanov proposed holding at the end of this year or early next year a meeting of foreign ministers of the Caspian states to \"stimulate the process of negotiation\" on the sea\'s status.CHECHEN PRESIDENT SEEKS INTERNATIONAL SUPPORT FOR CONCEPT OF \'CONDITIONAL INDEPENDENCE\'
By empty (7/22/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
In a 21 July statement posted on chechenpress.com, Aslan Maskhadov argued that in the light of the brutality inflicted on Chechens by Russian troops over the past two years and Russia\'s categorical rejection of his repeated offers of peace talks, only the involvement of the international community can bring about an end to the ongoing fighting. Maskhadov explained that independence for Chechnya is not an end in itself, but the only way of ending the past four centuries\' standoff with Russia and of guaranteeing Chechnya\'s security.TBILISI ASKS MOSCOW TO SEVER TIES WITH ABKHAZIA
By empty (7/22/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze said on Monday that he had sent a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin expressing Tbilisi’s categorical rejection of double standards applied by Russian authorities and their lack of respect for the decision of the heads of CIS (Commonwealth of Independent States) countries of 1996, forbidding any unilateral economic and political contacts with Abkhazian separatists without coordination with Georgian leadership. Moscow has not yet reacted to this statement. But on the same day, on July 21, the Russian Defense Ministry’s press service denied reports about possible supplies of S-300 missile system to Abkhazia, the Nezavisimaya Gazeta newspaper says.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.