News Digest
GEORGIAN TRADERS\' PROTEST GATHERS MOMENTUM
By empty (3/1/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
As they have done over the past week, several hundred market traders gathered outside the Georgian parliament building on March 1 to protest the new law that went into effect that day requiring them to install cash registers. Similar protests have been reported in Batumi, Zugdidi, and Gori, where police blocked roads to Tbilisi on March 1 to prevent traders traveling to the capital to join the protest there. The traders complain that they cannot afford to buy cash registers, and want the new law to take effect only in 2008; they have proposed that a profit tax be introduced instead.IRANIAN DELEGATION ARRIVES IN MOSCOW
By empty (3/1/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
An Iranian delegation has arrived in Moscow to negotiate the establishment of uranium enrichment a joint venture in Russia. The Iranian delegation is led by Supreme National Security Council Secretary Ali Larijani, and it also includes Vice President for Atomic Energy Qolam-Reza Aqazadeh. The delegation was originally planned to arrive several hours earlier, to hold a meeting at the Russian Security Council and leave Moscow in the evening, but the departure from Tehran was delayed.KAZAKH PRESIDENT\'S SON-IN-LAW DENIES INVOLVEMENT IN MURDER
By empty (2/28/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Deputy Foreign Minister Rakhat Aliev, who is also the son-in-law of President Nursultan Nazarbaev, issued a statement on 28 February condemning various reports alleging that he was involved in the killing of opposition leader Sarsenbaev. Aliev called the reports a \"stage-managed smear campaign to accuse me and other well-known people in Kazakhstan of purported involvement in the murder of Altynbek Sarsenbaev.\" Aliev said that the reports are a \"hideous lie\" and \"a part of the overall plan that began with the murder of this well-known politician.KYRGYZ PARLIAMENT FAILS TO ELECT SPEAKER
By empty (2/28/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The Kyrgyz parliament failed to elect a new speaker on Tuesday. \"None of the four proposed candidates got the required 38% of votes in three rounds of voting,\" an Interfax correspondent reported. Former Speaker Omurbek Tekebayev earlier resigned.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.