By empty (5/14/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Kazakh President Nursultan Nazarbaev has pardoned Mukhtar Abliyazov, a leader of the opposition Democratic Choice of Kazakhstan (DVK) movement and former energy, industry, and trade minister. Abliyazov was sentenced in July to six years\' imprisonment on charges of abuse of office and financial mismanagement. He requested a presidential pardon in April.

By empty (5/14/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Russia, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan agreed Wednesday to divide up the northern and central parts of the resource-rich Caspian Sea among themselves after failing to reach an accord with their southern neighbors Iran and Turkmenistan. \"We\'ve drawn closer and closer to each other,\" Kazakh Deputy Foreign Minister Kairat Abuseitov said at a signing ceremony in Kazakhstan\'s second city Almaty. Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Russia calculated their shares in proportion to the length of the five Caspian countries\' coastlines, giving Azerbaijan 18 percent, Russia 19 percent and Kazakhstan 27 percent, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Viktor Kalyuzhny said.

By empty (5/15/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Russian President Vladimir Putin asked lawmakers to offer amnesty to Chechen rebels who lay down their arms, pushing ahead with efforts to bring normalcy to the war-ravaged republic despite recent suicide attacks. The announcement came a day after a woman with explosives strapped to her waist blew herself up in the midst of thousands in the village of Iliskhan-Yurt in southeastern Chechnya during a Muslim festival killing herself and at least 15 others in an apparent attempt on the life of Chechnya\'s Moscow-backed chief administrator. Earlier this week, suicide bombers detonated a truck filled with explosives at the edge of a Chechen government compound, killing 59.