News Digest
RUSSIA\'S MUFTIS DENOUNCE ATTACK ON IRAQ
By empty (3/21/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Russia\'s Council of Muftis released a statement on Thursday, which said the attack on Iraq evokes with Moslems of the whole world a feeling of solidarity with their brethren subjected to an aggression. \"The attack on Iraq is an attack on a Muslim country, on believers, which evokes with Muslims of other countries a natural feeling of solidarity with the brethren subjected to the aggression,\" said the statement adopted in connection with military actions in the Persian Gulf. \"We do not give political valuations to Saddam Hussein\'s actions, but he is the legitimate president of a sovereign country, so the people of Iraq have the right to decide on their fate,\" the document said.REPRESENTATIVES OF RUSSIA, KAZAKHSTAN, BELARUS AND UKRAINE TO DRAFT AN AGREEMENT ON FORMING A COMMON ECONOMIC ZONE
By empty (3/21/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A two-day meeting of the special working group - the so-called High Level Group which was recently established upon the decision of the presidents of Russia, Kazakhstan, Belarus and Ukraine to draft an agreement on forming a common economic space - opened in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana, on Friday. Vice-Premier of Russia Viktor Khristenko, a participant in the meeting, said that the meeting would focus on the concept of forming a common economic space of the four largest CIS countries. According to Khristenko, the representatives of the four governments \"will try to outline in no uncertain terms\" what should be undertaken and in what succession in order to ensure free movement of goods, capitals, services and workforce among the parties to the future agreement.PARLIAMENTARIANS DISCUSS REESTABLISHMENT OF MOSCOW-YEREVAN RAILROAD
By empty (3/21/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The reestablishment of a railroad connection between Yerevan and Moscow has been discussed at today\'s meeting of a delegation of the Armenian National Assembly with representatives of the Russian Federation Council. Armenian parliamentarians have urged the Federation Council to use every possibility to reestablish the Transcaucasian railroad and welcomed the reestablishment of a railroad connection between Sochi and Sukhumi. Oganes Oganyan, the head of the Federation Council Economic Policy Committee, said that, according to experts, the reestablishment of a railroad connection with Armenia would increase the Armenian GDP by 40 percent, at least.RUSSIA, FORMER SOVIET REPUBLICS SECURITY CHIEFS CONDEMN IRAQ WAR
By empty (3/21/2003 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Security chiefs from Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgystan, Tajikistan and Russia on Thursday warned that the US-led attack on Iraq could compromise Washington\'s efforts to win the war on terrorism. \"We learned with great worry of the beginning of military action against Iraq, which has already caused human victims and destruction,\" the security chiefs said in a statement, quoted by Interfax-AVN news agency. They warned that the military actions would have \"grave consequences for the entire international security system, including for the unfinished anti-terrorist operation in Afghanistan.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.