News Digest
KAZAKHSTAN TO SELL MOST OF 50% IN KAZAKHTELECOM IN 2004
By empty (5/12/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Kazakhstan plans to sell most of its 50% stake in domestic and international operator OAO Kazakhtelecom in 2004, a Finance Ministry official said Monday. The government intends to fully deregulate its telecom market by 2005. Kazakhtelecom currently has monopoly rights for long-distance and international calls.IRAN STEPS UP NET CENSORSHIP
By empty (5/13/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Iran has tightened controls on the internet, ordering thousands of political and pornographic websites to be blocked. The Iranian press said a list of 15,000 sites had been drawn up by the government and sent to internet service providers. Ministers were quoted as saying that they wanted to \"block access to immoral sites as well as political sites which rudely make fun of religious and political figures in the country.NUMBER OF HIGHER-EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS HALVED IN KAZAKHSTAN
By empty (5/13/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Kazakhstan\'s Education Ministry has halved the number of institutions of higher education in the country over the last two years, ministry official Maksat Kalimoldaev announced on 13 May. Two years ago there were about 350 such institutions, and now there are 170, of which 32 are state institutions, according to Kalimoldaev. He added that the reduction is the result of ministry inspections, which found that many of the institutions did not meet official standards.MOSCOW ALLEGES LINKS BETWEEN SAUDI, CHECHEN BOMBINGS
By empty (5/13/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
During his meeting with NATO Secretary-General Robertson on 13 May, President Putin said there is a connection between the 12 May terrorist explosions in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, which left at least 29 people dead and about 200 injured, and a car-bomb attack the same day in Znamenskoe in northern Chechnya, which left more than 50 people dead. Putin said that both acts have identical fingerprints and the consequences of the two attacks are comparable. He added that the Chechnya explosion was an effort by forces both within and outside of the republic to block the road to a peaceful settlement to the conflict there.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.