By empty (12/19/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

Kazakhstan copper mining firm Kazakhmys has joined London\'s benchmark FTSE 100 share index, lining up alongside favourites like BP, Barclays and Boots. It is the first former Soviet bloc company to join the index, but is one of a growing number of firms from the region to list its shares in London. Since its October listing, Kazakhmys\' shares have risen almost 22%.

By empty (12/13/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

In a 12 December letter, Uzbekistan\'s Foreign Ministry informed RFE/RL acting President Jeff Trimble that it has denied the Tashkent bureau of RFE/RL\'s Uzbek Service an extension of its accreditation. The letter accused RFE/RL of violating Uzbek legislation by employing the services of stringers who \"engage in journalist activity without accreditation by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.\" The ministry also suspended the accreditation of four RFE/RL Uzbek Service correspondents who held individual accreditation.

By empty (12/13/2005 issue of the CACI Analyst)

The Tatar youth organization Liberty (Azatlyk) met in Naberezhnie Chelny on 10 December and passed a resolution criticizing what it called President Putin\'s policies that are promoted by unnamed politicians and commentators and aimed at Russifying the peoples of the Russian Federation. The document said that Putin\'s efforts to foster a single national identity for all the peoples of the federation includes promoting the \"leading role of the [Great] Russian nation\" and language to the detriment of the identities, languages, and cultures of other nations and denying those nations the \"right to decolonization and self-determination.\" The declaration suggested that the Tatars have \"for centuries\" worked for the benefit of the \"Russian empire.