By Marat Yermukanov (6/27/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)

At the joint session of the senate and majilis (lower chamber of Kazakh parliament) on June 19 Nurbakh Rustemov, a member of parliament, read out a letter to President Nursultan Nazarbayev asking him to dissolve the majilis which, in his words, “obstructs the reforms’ in the country. Nazarbayev was not slow to respond to the “will of people’s representatives” and with a stroke of a pen dissolved the lower chamber of parliament.

A day after majilis deputies issued a suicidal letter to the head of the state signed by 61 members of the lower house, President Nazarbayev, speaking at the meeting of the pro-presidential Nur Otan party, announced his decision to dissolve the lower chamber of parliament.

By Kakha Jibladze (6/27/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Four months ago, Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili announced a new tax initiative. While the government has boasted it will significantly lower the tax burden for businesses, tax experts and opposition politicians are questioning who will truly benefit from the changes.

The new tax amendment basically consists of abolishing the social tax (currently 20 percent of a worker’s salary), reducing the profit tax by five percent but doubling the income tax (from 12 percent to 25 percent).

By Christopher Pala (6/13/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)

For black market caviar in Atyrau, Kazakhstan’s sturgeon capital a few miles from the Caspian Sea, you need go no further than the main Nasikhat market. There, a stout woman standing behind a stall groaning under piles of carp, pike and sturgeon from the nearby Ural River delivers the bad news: beluga caviar now costs $800 a kilo, up from $400 last year and $35 a decade ago. Less sought-after sevruga and osietra caviar cost $500 a kilo.