News Digest
KYRGYZSTAN CLOSES BORDER WITH CHINA
By empty (5/14/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The Kyrgyz government has ordered the closure of the Kyrgyz-Chinese border as of 12 May as a measure to prevent the spread of severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS). The Health Ministry recommended the closure last week. According to the Kyrgyz government order, which affects the Torugart and Irkeshtam crossing points, Kyrgyz citizens returning from China and Chinese citizens returning home from Kyrgyzstan will be allowed to cross for the next 10 days.OPPOSITION LEADER PARDONED IN KAZAKHSTAN
By empty (5/14/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has pardoned Mukhtar Abliyazov, a leader of the opposition Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement and former energy, industry, and trade minister. Abliyazov was sentenced in July to six years\' imprisonment on charges of abuse of office and financial mismanagement. He requested a presidential pardon in April.THREE CASPIAN STATES AGREE TO DIVVY UP RESOURCE-RICH SEA
By empty (5/14/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan agreed Wednesday to divide up the northern and central parts of the resource-rich Caspian Sea among themselves after failing to reach an accord with their southern neighbors Iran and Turkmenistan. \"We\'ve drawn closer and closer to each other,\" Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Kairat Abuseitov said at a signing ceremony in Kazakhstan\'s second city Almaty. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia calculated their shares in proportion to the length of the five Caspian countries\' coastlines, giving Azerbaijan 18 percent, Russia 19 percent and Kazakhstan 27 percent, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Viktor Kalyuzhny said.PUTIN PUSHES AMNESTY FOR CHECHEN REBELS
By empty (5/15/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Russian President Vladimir Putin asked lawmakers to offer amnesty to Chechen rebels who lay down their arms, pushing ahead with efforts to bring normalcy to the war-ravaged republic despite recent suicide attacks. The announcement came a day after a woman with explosives strapped to her waist blew herself up in the midst of thousands in the village of Iliskhan-Yurt in southeastern Chechnya during a Muslim festival killing herself and at least 15 others in an apparent attempt on the life of Chechnya\'s Moscow-backed chief administrator. Earlier this week, suicide bombers detonated a truck filled with explosives at the edge of a Chechen government compound, killing 59.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.