News Digest
PIPELINE CONSTRUCTION WORKERS IN GEORGIA STRIKE FOR PAY INCREASE
By empty (12/16/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Local workers engaged in the construction of the Georgian section of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan export pipeline for Caspian oil have staged protest strikes at several locations over the past week to demand a pay increase and that their wages be paid on time, Georgian media reported. They are complaining that they are paid only 1 lari ($0.46) per day, whereas their counterparts in Azerbaijan and Turkey receive $2 per hour.PUTIN EXPRESSES CONDOLENCES TO AZERI LEADER
By empty (12/16/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Baku on Monday morning to attend the funeral of ex-president of Azerbaijan, Heydar Aliyev. The Russian leader headed directly from the airport to the Respublika palace, where the coffin has been placed. The Russian president laid a wreath at the coffin.7 CHECHEN FIGHTERS KILLED IN DAGESTAN – FSB
By empty (12/16/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Seven militants were killed in the Tsuntinsky district of Dagestan on Tuesday morning, chief of the North-Caucasian regional border guard administration of the Federal Security Service, Lieutenant-General Nikolai Lesinsky, reported. The General did not disclose any details of the operation. On Monday morning the border guards discovered a bandit group in the Tsuntinsky district of Dagestan.TROOPS, HOSTAGE TAKERS CLASH IN DAGHESTAN
By empty (12/16/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Additional police detachments were sent on 15 December to Daghestan\'s Tsunta Raion to try to apprehend a group of some 25-30 militants, said by Russian officials to be Chechens, who seized four hostages, including a doctor, in the predominantly Avar-populated village of Shauri earlier that day. Daghestan\'s Interior Minister Adilgirei Magomedtagirov also headed for the site of the abductions. The militants then split into several groups and retreated westward toward the internal border between Daghestan and Chechnya.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.