By Pavel K. Baev (5/3/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

BACKGROUND:On April 16, a referendum on merger was conducted in the Irkutsk oblast and Ust-Orda Buryat autonomous okrug, and in both regions the overwhelming majority of voters approved the proposal. The result is hardly surprising since this political technology was already successfully tested in Perm, Krasnoyarsk and Kamchatka that all confidently incorporated smaller autonomous okrugs. What was surprising was the amount of political resources invested by the federal center in advancing these projects, including high-level visits and such generous ‘presidential gifts’ as a new bridge across Angara and an oncology clinic.

By Richard Weitz (4/19/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

BACKGROUND: In an interview published in the local Aki-press agency on February 19, 2006, the head of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) mission in Kyrgyzstan, Markus Mueller, once more expressed concern over persistent instability in the country. He called for a dialogue between the president, prime minister, parliament, and other major Kyrgyz political actors engaged in the country’s protracted and sometimes violent political struggle since the March 2005 “Tulip Revolution.” Mueller said that the OSCE headquarters in Vienna also is “worried about the situation” in Kyrgyzstan.

By Stephen Blank (4/19/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

BACKGROUND: Although its policies in the Caspian basin have generally been circumspect, Iran is not necessarily a status quo power in this region. It attacked Azerbaijani oil platforms in 2001 and subsequently threatened Kazakh explorations in the Caspian in disputes over who owns that sea’s waters. Since then, in 2002 the U.