By empty (8/7/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)

In a statement released on 7 August, Azerbaijan's Foreign Ministry condemned as "a provocation and a gross violation of international norms" and "a new challenge to Azerbaijan's territorial integrity" the planned presidential election in the unrecognized Nagorno-Karabakh Republic. It said legitimate state organs can be elected in Karabakh only after the conflict has been resolved peacefully and the Azerbaijani population of Karabakh has been allowed to return, according to Turan on 8 August. The statement said Armenia "will bear the responsibility" for allowing the ballot to take place.

By empty (8/7/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Federation Council Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Mikhail Margelov on 7 August compared Georgia's failure to take resolute action against Chechen militants ensconced in the Pankisi Gorge with the Taliban's tolerance of Al-Qaeda fighters on Afghan territory. He argued that "if [Georgian President] Eduard Shevardnadze does not understand how one should deal with terrorists, he should consult his American colleagues." Failure to eradicate the Chechen "terrorist presence," Margelov warned, could result in Georgia becoming "a rogue state.

By empty (8/7/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Nazarbaev issued a decree on 7 August scheduling elections to the Senate (the upper Chamber of Kazakhstan's parliament) for 8 October. The Senate has 39 members, of whom seven are appointed by the president and the remainder are elected from the country's 14 oblasts and the cities of Astana and Almaty. Senators serve for a period of five years, and of those popularly elected, half are elected every three years.