By empty (12/4/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Georgian ambassador in Moscow Zurab Abashidze was invited to the Russian Foreign Ministry on Wednesday to receive the note relative to Boris Berezovsky\'s visit to Georgia, the Press and Information Board of the Russian Foreign Ministry says in the communique. The note says that, according to information from the press centre of the Georgian State Department for State Border Protection, Boris Berezovsky arrived in Tbilisi on the night between December 2 and 3. \"Georgia should well know that the person is on international search by the Interpol\", reads the note.

By empty (12/3/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Russia slammed Britain on Monday for granting asylum to leading Chechen rebel Akhmed Zakayev, arguing that the move raised doubt about the British government\'s commitment to the fight against terrorism. \"The granting of asylum status to Akhmed Zakayev not so much causes dismay or regret on our part as it raises doubt on our part as to the sincerity of statements and declarations made by the British leadership in relation to counter-terrorism,\" Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov told a news conference at NATO. Zakayev – who said he feared he would be killed if he returned to Russia – sought asylum within days of arriving in Britain a year ago and on Saturday the British government said his request had been granted.

By empty (12/2/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Armenia sentenced six men to life imprisonment on Tuesday for their roles in breaking into the former Soviet state\'s parliament in 1999 and gunning down the prime minister, the chamber\'s speaker and other officials. A regional court handed down the sentences more than four years after Armenia buried the officials, some of whom were said to be more influential than the president himself. A seventh man, accused of being the killers\' driver after being caught with weapons in his car outside parliament, was sentenced to 14 years.