By empty (4/18/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)

In his annual state-of-the-nation address to the Federal Assembly broadcast live on Russian television on 18 April, President Vladimir Putin said that "the military phase [in Chechnya] is over thanks to the bravery of the army and special task forces. A year ago, we were counting how many there were fighting against us, how many rebels, how many terrorists: 2,000, 3,000, 5,000, 10,000. Today it's not important to us how many there are, what matters is where they are.

By empty (4/18/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)

On 17 April, Kazakh National Bank Chairman Grigorii Marchenko backed President Nursultan Nazarbaev's decision to divert over $1 billion into a secret National oil fund, telling journalists in Almaty that "this was the right decision from the economic point of view," although it may have been flawed from a political or legal perspective. Kazakh officials claim that almost $880 million of the $1 billion deposited five years ago in Swiss bank accounts was used to pay off pension arrears and support the national budget. Marchenko said on 16 April that the remaining $212.

By empty (4/17/2002 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Diplomatic envoys stationed in Russia have asked Russian authorities to take steps to put an end to attacks by Russian neo-Nazis on foreigners. In early April, two black U.S.