News Digest
BAN ON MASKS IN CHECHNYA LEGALLY FLAWED - POLICE SOURCE
By empty (10/18/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Chechen Interior Minister Ruslan Alkhanov\'s order to shoot anyone wearing a mask in Chechnya is \"a legally flawed decision,\" said a highly-placed source in the Russian Interior Ministry. \"This subjective decision and its consequences should have been carefully calculated from the legal point of view,\" the source told Interfax on Tuesday. \"Masks are part of riot policemen\'s uniform,\" he added.SOUTH OSSETIAN LEADER EXPECTING GEORGIAN PROVOCATIONS
By empty (10/18/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
South Ossetian President Eduard Kokoity said he thinks Georgia will step up what he described as provocative acts aimed at ending the Russian peacekeeping mission in the region. \"The latest steps taken by Tbilisi on South Ossetian territory, including mortar strikes at Tskhinvali, are aimed at escalating tensions and changing the format of the peacekeeping mission in the Georgian-South Ossetian conflict zone,\" Kokoity told Interfax on Tuesday. \"Provocative acts will intensify as we approach February - the Georgian Parliament\'s date for the beginning of the final stage of the Russian peacekeeping mission,\" he said.RUSSIAN GENERALS/LAWMAKERS ARGUE OVER NALCHIK RAID
By empty (10/18/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Colonel General Vladimir Vasiliev (Unified Russia), the chairman of the Duma Security Committee, said on 16 October on the NTV show \"Voskresnyi vecher\" that during the recent attacks by insurgents in Nalchik the federal troops reacted better than they had in previous attacks. Army General Nikolai Kovalev, the chairman of the Duma Veterans Committee (Unified Russia), said that it is difficult to fight underground urban guerilla warfare. \"During the day these people are normal citizens, but at night they change clothes, take up hidden arms, form small mobile groups, hit their targets, and then transform into civilians,\" he said.RELATIVES SEEK TO BURY NALCHIK VICTIMS
By empty (10/18/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Citing the 2002 law on terrorism, police in Nalchik continue to refuse to give relatives the bodies of many young men killed in the 13 October raid on Nalchik, claiming the men in question were active participants, not innocent victims. While radical Chechen field commander Shamil Basaev said on 17 October that 42 of the 217 participants are dead or missing. Interfax the same day said some 50 bodies of \"militants\" remain unidentified.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.