News Digest
RUSSIA AGAIN DENIES BOMBING PANKISI
By empty (8/8/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A Russian Air Force spokesman on 7 August denied a statement made earlier the same day by Georgian National Security Minister Valeri Khaburzania accusing Russian aircraft of mounting a further bombing raid on the Pankisi Gorge the previous night. On 8 August, a spokesman for the Tbilisi OSCE mission said OSCE observers deployed along the border between Georgia and Chechnya have confirmed earlier reports, which Russia likewise denied, of a Russian bombing raid on Georgian territory on 2 August. (RFE/RL).AZERBAIJAN CONDEMNS KARABAKH PRESIDENTIAL BALLOT
By empty (8/7/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
In a statement released on 7 August, Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry condemned as "a provocation and a gross violation of international norms" and "a new challenge to Azerbaijan's territorial integrity" the planned presidential election in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It said legitimate state organs can be elected in Karabakh only after the conflict has been resolved peacefully and the Azerbaijani population of Karabakh has been allowed to return, according to Turan on 8 August. The statement said Armenia "will bear the responsibility" for allowing the ballot to take place.FEDERATION COUNCIL OFFICIAL ACCUSES GEORGIA OF HARBORING 'TERRORISTS'
By empty (8/7/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mikhail Margelov on 7 August compared Georgia's failure to take resolute action against Chechen militants ensconced in the Pankisi Gorge with the Taliban's tolerance of Al-Qaeda fighters on Afghan territory. He argued that "if [Georgian President] Eduard Shevardnadze does not understand how one should deal with terrorists, he should consult his American colleagues." Failure to eradicate the Chechen "terrorist presence," Margelov warned, could result in Georgia becoming "a rogue state.DATE SET FOR SENATE ELECTIONS IN KAZAKHSTAN
By empty (8/7/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Nazarbaev issued a decree on 7 August scheduling elections to the Senate (the upper Chamber of Kazakhstan's parliament) for 8 October. The Senate has 39 members, of whom seven are appointed by the president and the remainder are elected from the country's 14 oblasts and the cities of Astana and Almaty. Senators serve for a period of five years, and of those popularly elected, half are elected every three years.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.