News Digest
YOUNG LAWYERS ALLEGE MISAPPROPRIATION FROM GEORGIAN PRESIDENTIAL FUND
By empty (7/23/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Representatives of the Georgian Association of Young Lawyers told a press conference in Tbilisi on 23 July that hundreds of thousands of laris from the presidential fund were spent last year in violation of existing legislation. Some 200,000 laris ($110,405) were paid to an Italian company for unspecified \"consultations,\" while 33,000 laris were used to cover the travel costs of Georgian parliament deputies who accompanied President Mikheil Saakashvili on a visit to Italy. At the same time, only 4,000 laris from the fund was allocated in emergency aid to inhabitants of Dusheti whose homes were destroyed or damaged in flooding earlier this year.ABKHAZIA, RUSSIA OPT OUT OF UN-SPONSORED TALKS
By empty (7/22/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Abkhaz and Russian representatives declined at the last minute to attend talks in Tbilisi under the UN aegis, scheduled to take place on 22-23 July and to address security measures to be implemented in the Abkhaz conflict zone. Abkhaz Foreign Minister Sergei Shamba told the independent Georgian television station Rustavi-2 that Sukhum\'s decision not to attend the talks was made in response to Georgia\'s failure to hand over cargo confiscated from a Turkish vessel intercepted by the Georgian Navy last month. Georgian Minister for Conflict Resolution.U.S. CONGRESS CALLS FOR FAIR ELECTIONS IN AZERBAIJAN
By empty (7/22/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The House of Representatives adopted a resolution on 20 July calling on the Azerbaijani leadership to ensure that the parliamentary election scheduled for 6 November is free and fair. Specifically, the resolution called on the Azerbaijani authorities to permit the total participation in the ballot of opposition parties, including those opposition activists jailed for their imputed role in the post-presidential-election unrest in October 2003. Those activists have since been released, but the criminal charges against some of them have not been annulled.IMF LAUDS ARMENIAN ECONOMIC GROWTH
By empty (7/22/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Speaking on 21 July at a press conference following two days of talks in Yerevan with Armenian government officials, International Monetary Fund (IMF) Deputy Managing Director Agustin Carstens praised Armenia\'s continuing high rate of GDP growth and progress in reducing poverty, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. He noted that \"very few countries..Visit also
Staff Publications
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, Greater Central Asia as A Component of U.S. Global Strategy, October 2024.
Analysis Laura Linderman, "Rising Stakes in Tbilisi as Elections Approach," Civil Georgia, September 7, 2024.
Analysis Mamuka Tsereteli, "U.S. Black Sea Strategy: The Georgian Connection", CEPA, February 9, 2024.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell, ed., Türkiye's Return to Central Asia and the Caucasus, July 2024.
Book Svante E. Cornell, ed., "The Changing Geopolitics of Central Asia and the Caucasus" AFPC Press/Armin LEar, 2023.
Silk Road Paper Svante E. Cornell and S. Frederick Starr, Stepping up to the “Agency Challenge”: Central Asian Diplomacy in a Time of Troubles, July 2023.
Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr, U.S. Policy in Central Asia through Central Asian Eyes, May 2023.