News Digest
SHELL ASKS KAZAKHSTAN TO IMPROVE OIL LEGISLATION
By empty (10/9/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Martin Ferstl, president of the Kazakhstan branch of Royal Dutch Shell, said on 9 October at the annual Kazakh International Oil and Gas Exposition (KIOGE) in Almaty that his company has asked Kazakh officials to clarify legislation regulating offshore oil operations. Ferstl added that vague contracts and legislation are bad for investment, and investors need strong laws that cannot be interpreted arbitrarily by state agencies. He also expressed dissatisfaction with the requirement contained in the Kazakh government program for Caspian-shelf development through 2015 that the Kazakh state oil and gas agency KazMunaiGaz should own at least 50 percent of all Caspian hydrocarbon projects.MOSCOW STRESSES POSSIBILITY OF USING MILITARY FORCE IN THE CIS
By empty (10/9/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
At the press conference in Yekaterinburg on 9 October after the completion of the Russo-German summit Defense Minister Ivanov said that Russia retains the right to use military force on the territory of the former Soviet republics. \"The CIS is a very crucial sphere for our security,\" Ivanov said. \"Ten million of our compatriots live there, and we are supplying energy to them at prices below international levels.PUTIN SAYS RUSSIA WILL KEEP CONTROL OF CIS PIPELINES
By empty (10/9/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Speaking at a joint press conference with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder in Yekaterinburg on 9 October, President Putin said that Russia will not relinquish control over the pipeline infrastructure on the territory of the former Soviet republics. The gas-pipeline system was built by the Soviet Union, he said, and only Russia is in a position to keep it in working order, \"even those parts of the system that are beyond Russia\'s borders.\" Putin said that it would only be possible to provide cheap Russian energy resources to the European Union if Moscow is able to keep the pipeline system in Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan functioning with Russian technical supervision.UZBEKISTAN TO LIFT CURRENCY RESTRICTIONS
By empty (10/8/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Uzbekistan\'s government said Wednesday it would lift restrictions on foreign currency transactions, a long-awaited move aimed at opening the most populous country in Central Asia to greater foreign investment. Businessmen reacted with skepticism. \"From today, all remaining restrictions on currency transactions have been lifted,\" Deputy Prime Minister Rustam Azimov told reporters at a joint news conference with visiting head of the International Monetary Fund mission to the country, J.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.