News Digest
GEORGIAN ELECTIONS RESULTS INVALIDATED IN KUTAISI
By empty (11/13/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A district court in Kutaisi, Georgia\'s second-largest city, ruled on 13 November in response to appeals by the opposition Labor Party and Democratic Revival Union to annul the elections results for the city for both the proportional and majority vote. Burdjanadze was widely expected to win election from a Kutaisi constituency. As of 10 November, the vote had been declared invalid in 27 constituencies and repeat elections scheduled for 16 November.BRITISH COURT THROWS OUT RUSSIAN REQUEST TO EXTRADITE CHECHEN OFFICIAL
By empty (11/13/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A London magistrates\' court rejected on 13 November a demand by the Russian Prosecutor-General\'s Office for the extradition of Akhmed Zakaev, vice premier in Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov\'s government, British media reported. Judge Timothy Workman said there is \"a substantial risk\" that Zakaev would be subjected to torture if he were sent back to Russia to face what are widely regarded as fabricated charges of terrorism, hostage taking, and murder. The Russian Prosecutor-General\'s Office condemned the court decision as an example of \"double standards,\" while Russian presidential aide Sergei Yastrzhembskii described it as an attempt to justify terrorism.CENSUS RESULTS CHALLENGED ON RELIGION, NATIONALITY TOTALS
By empty (11/13/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Council of Muftis head Ravil Gainutdin told reporters on 11 November that he disagrees with the preliminary conclusion of the Russian census that there are only 14.5 million Muslims in Russia, \"Izvestiya\" reported on 12 November. According to Gainutdin, there are no fewer than 20 million Muslims in Russia.UN LAND-MINE EXPERTS ARRIVE IN TAJIKISTAN TO MAP UZBEK MINEFIELDS
By empty (11/12/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A group of UN land-mine experts has arrived in Tajikistan to identify areas on the Tajik-Uzbek border where the Uzbek military has planted land mines. According to the Tajik Center for Land-Mine Problems, the UN group will also investigate the 4 November incident in Sughd Oblast in which two Tajik citizens were killed and three others injured by one or more suspected Uzbek land mines while gathering wood on the Uzbek side of the poorly marked border. (Asia-Plus Blitz).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.