By Kakha Jibladze (11/17/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

In politics perception is just as powerful as fact, and the perception that the new regime is overstepping its authority is threatening to overshadow the progress made over the past year. On October 27 Zurab Tchiaberashvili, the mayor of Tbilisi, called a press conference after receiving a gift from Zurab Adamia, the head of a district in Tbilisi. The conference was aired live on television as Tchiaberashvili accused Adamia of bribery and fired him.

By Marat Yermukanov (11/17/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

According to him the terrorist group included 8 Kazakh and 4 Uzbek nationals, who had been perpetrating subversive activities in Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan under direct orders from two leaders (amirs) of the network, Akhmed Baimurzayev and Zhakshybek Baimurzayev. The latter, according to the National Security Committee, was the resident of Talas region of Kyrgyzstan and played a significant role during the incursions of Batken region in Kyrgyzstan by Islamic militants in 1999 and 2000. Reportedly, Zhakshybek Baimurzayev, who possessed Kazakh, Uzbek and Kyrgyz passports, and belonged to the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU), directed the activities of the terrorist group in Kazakhstan.

By Marat Yermukanov (11/3/2004 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Over the last decade, Astana came up with a number of confidence-building initiatives aimed at developing a constructive dialogue between India and Pakistan, speaking out for peaceful settlement of Arab-Israeli conflict, and even hosting a Congress of World Religions. Kazakh diplomacy was quite successful in gaining a positive assessment of country’s foreign policy on the international scene from the European Union and the OSCE. Behind these tempestuous activities, Kazakhstan’s own strained relations with its next-door neighbors, particularly with Uzbekistan, can hardly serve as a model of good-neighborly, not to speak of brotherly, relations.