By empty (8/29/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Deputy Foreign Minister Rakhat Aliev, who is also President Nazarbaev\'s son-in-law, told a meeting of a state democratization commission in Astana on August 28 that Britain and the United States have reservations about Kazakhstan\'s bid to chair the OSCE in 2009, Interfax-Kazakhstan reported. \"Certain countries, among which the United States and Great Britain stand out, while generally welcoming Kazakhstan\'s initiative [to chair the OSCE], at the same time view critically the prospects for its chairmanship in 2009,\" Aliev said. The OSCE is expected to make a decision on Kazakhstan\'s bid by the end of 2006.

By empty (8/28/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Outgoing Japanese Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi left on August 28 for a four-day visit to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, the first-ever trip by a Japanese leader to Central Asia. The Japanese international broadcaster cited recent remarks by Aleksandr Panov, one of Moscow\'s former ambassadors to Tokyo, to the effect that Koizumi is seeking to \"confront\" Russia and China in Central Asia on behalf of the United States. Panov argued that Koizumi will achieve nothing.

By empty (8/28/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Some 24,000 migrant workers have profited from a Kazakh program to legalize the status of unregistered migrant workers that got under way earlier this summer. The program, which will continue until the end of the year, is expected to legalize 100,000 workers, mainly from Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Russia. Under the program, recently arrived illegal workers are able to receive migration cards and work legally.