News Digest
ABKHAZ LEADERSHIP SIGNALS WILLINGNESS TO RESUME TALKS
By empty (5/12/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Abkhaz presidential adviser Astamur Tania and Prime Minister Raul Khadjimba said in Sukhum on 5 and 9 May, respectively, that Abkhazia is ready to resume talks with Georgia within the UN-sponsored Coordinating Council. Abkhazia suspended its participation in such talks last year to protest the deployment of Georgian troops in the divided Kodori Gorge. Khadjimba also said on 9 May that he sees no need to create additional working groups to address problems related to the conflict, as recently suggested by the \"Friends of the UN Secretary-General\" group of states that seek to expedite a solution to the Abkhaz conflict.PRESIDENT TERMS GEORGIAN PARLIAMENT BRAWL \'A DISGRACE\'
By empty (5/12/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
In his regular Monday radio interview, President Shevardnadze on 12 May deplored as \"a disgrace\" the fistfight in parliament on 5 May between deputy speaker Vaktang Rcheulishvili and a group of opposition deputies whom he had implied are homosexuals. Shevardnadze noted with regret that such incidents have become commonplace. The Georgian Prosecutor-General\'s Office has launched an investigation into the fracas.DOZENS KILLED IN CHECHNYA CAR-BOMB ATTACK
By empty (5/12/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
At least 30, and possibly as many as 40, people died on 12 May when a KamAZ truck loaded with explosives drove into the local administration building in the Nadterechnyi Raion in northern Chechnya. Chechen administration head Akhmed-hadji Kadyrov immediately blamed the blast on fighters loyal to Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov. Some 80 people died in a similar car-bomb attack on the government building in Grozny in December.NEW TALKS START ON DIVIDING CASPIAN SEA BUT SPLITS STILL EVIDENT
By empty (5/12/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A new round of talks began between the five Caspian Sea countries seeking to divide up the resource-rich sea but a north-south split remained as Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan were close to signing a trilateral agreement, Kazakhstan\'s deputy foreign minister said. The three northern countries \"have agreed the text of an agreement and there should be no obstacles to signing it,\" Kairat Abuseitov told journalists after the talks opened in Kazakhstan\'s second city Almaty. The five-way negotiations, which are set to continue until Wednesday, are aimed at solving an impasse which, since the break-up of the Soviet Union, has hampered efforts to exploit the major oil and gas reserves beneath the Caspian.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.