News Digest
GEORGIAN INTERIOR MINISTER UNDER PRESSURE OVER BANKER\'S MURDER
By empty (2/18/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Vano Merabishvili was summoned to parliament on 28 February to answer questions about the investigation into the killing of Sandro Girgvliani, an employee of United Georgian Bank. Girgvliani was found dead on the outskirts of Tbilisi on 28 January following a public argument the previous evening in a Tbilisi bar with men believed to have been Interior Ministry personnel. On 24 February, Georgian ombudsman Sozar Subar called on Merabishvili to dismiss ministry spokesman Guram Donadze for having attributed the murder to a dispute among the \"Svan mafia\" (Girgvliani\'s surname clearly identifies his family as originating in Georgia\'s northwestern Svaneti region), but Merabishvili refused.YEREVAN RESIDENTS PROTEST OUTSIDE ARMENIAN PARLIAMENT
By empty (2/18/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Several dozen people, who have been evicted from houses in Yerevan\'s Buzand Street, congregated on 27 February outside the Armenian Parliament to protest the withdrawal by six parliamentarians of their signatures under an appeal to the Constitutional Court, RFE/RL\'s Armenian Service reported. The street is being demolition to make way for a new multimillion dollar development. A total of 32 parliament deputies initially signed the appeal, more than the minimum required of 27, but six of them, including deputies representing the ruling coalition, withdrew their signatures on 20 February following criticism from Prime Minister Andranik Markarian.ALKHANOV VOWS CRACKDOWN ON ABDUCTIONS
By empty (2/28/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Eradicating abductions is a key challenge facing the Chechen government, the republic\'s President Alu Alkhanov told a news conference at the Interfax central office on Tuesday. \"The main task is to prevent or eradicate this crime in the Chechen republic,\" he said. The number of kidnappings and other serious crimes has already started to decline in Chechnya, he said.BEREZOVSKY FINANCED MASKHADOV REGIME – ALKHANOV
By empty (2/18/2006 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Chechen President Alu Alkhanov said he has no doubts that businessman Boris Berezovsky funded the Aslan Maskhadov-led government. \"As for Berezovsky and the dollars he handed over to Maskhadov\'s regime, nobody has any doubts about that,\" Alkhanov told a news conference at the Interfax central office on Tuesday. \"We all know that, and [Chechen warlord Shamil] Basayev himself has admitted that.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.