STAKES AND IMPLICATIONS OF THE CONSTRUCTION BOOM IN TURKMENISTAN
By Sebastien Peyrouse (7/9/2008 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Since the beginning of the 1990s, the Turkmen capital Ashgabat, regarded as a new Dubai, has been being remodelled in line with the first president’s, Saparmurat Niyazov’s, taste for giant-scale projects. If there is one area in which Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov’s policies have not changed from his predecessor but have actually magnified them, it is precisely in the construction sector. The economic stakes of this boom are important, and have provoked a growing competitiveness between French company Bouygues and Turkish firms.
KADYROV BRAWL WITH YAMADAEV POINTS TO RUSSIAN DILEMMA IN CHECHNYA
By Dmitry Shlapentokh (7/9/2008 issue of the CACI Analyst)
In spring 2008, an unprecedented event took place in Chechnya when a quarrel between President Ramzan Kadyrov and Sulim Yamadaev, the commander of the Vostok battalion, almost led to military action when Kadyrov’s paramilitary detachments surrounded the Vostok base. In the clashes, several people were killed, and several officers of the Russian forces were arrested. The event is Kafkaesque given that Kadyrov’s forces and the Vostok are both legitimate military detachments supposedly fully controlled by Moscow, the latter even an integral part of the Russian army.
UZBEKISTAN’S RECENT GESTURES AND FOREIGN POLICY FORMULATION PROBLEM
By Farkhad Tolipov (6/26/2008 issue of the CACI Analyst)
During the April 2008 NATO Summit, an interesting new turn took place in the context of NATO’s post-Soviet relations. It was agreed that a railroad line would be created to transport the cargo from Europe through the territory of some CIS countries, including Russia, toward Afghanistan. Soon after this event, in June, an informal CIS summit took place in St.
AZERBAIJANI GAS AGAIN ON THE FRONT BURNER
By Robert M. Cutler (6/26/2008 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliev has announced a doubling of the reserves of both oil and gas in his country’s Caspian offshore. New finds in as many of five fields to be developed contain perhaps 50 trillion cubic feet of gas, such as to require a new gas export pipeline. An executive of the national oil company SOCAR has hinted that gas from Turkmenistan could be included, starting even in the near term with small quantities.
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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.