News Digest
TAJIKISTAN WANTS TO ASK RUSSIA TO AMNESTY DEPORTEES
By empty (1/8/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The Tajik Interior Ministry is working on an official letter to the Russian Interior Ministry to amnesty 50,000 Tajik nationals deported from Russia for administrative offenses, senior ministry official Mumin Zinatov told the press on Monday. \"Some 50,000 citizens of Tajikistan were deported in 2004-2006 for administrative offenses, in particular for staying in Russia without due registration,\" he said. \"The Interior Ministry is working on a request to amnesty these individuals so that they could enter Russian territory again,\" he said.KAZAKHSTAN LIFTS BAN ON DNEPR LV LAUNCHES FROM BAIKONUR
By empty (1/8/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
Kazakhstan has lifted the ban on the launches of Dnepr rockets from Baikonur space center, head of the aerospace committee of the Kazakh Ministry of Education and Science Murat Nurgazhin told Interfax on Monday. \"The Kazakh governmental commission signed all the necessary documents related to the accident and test launches of Dnepr from Baikonur are permitted as of the beginning of 2007,\" he said. Kazakhstan banned Dnepr takeoffs from Baikonur following a failed launch at the end of July last year.PASSENGERS OF BUS EN ROUTE TO ISTANBUL ROBBED IN GEORGIA
By empty (1/7/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
A group of gunmen stopped a Turkish bus en route from Tbilisi to Istanbul outside the village of Japana in the west of Georgia early on Sunday morning, ordering all of its passengers to hand over their money and valuables, Georgia\'s Rustavi-2 television reported. Nobody was killed or injured in the incident, some of the passengers told a Rustavi-2 correspondent. Officials of the Georgian Interior Ministry have so far been unavailable for comment.TRUCK DRIVERS CONTINUE TRANS-CAUCASUS MOTORWAY BLOCKADE
By empty (1/6/2007 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The about 70 heavy haulers carrying tangerines, that reached Nizhny Zaramag checkpoint in late December, remain there, a source in North Ossetia\'s law enforcement services told Interfax on Saturday. Most of the drivers are from North Ossetia. They are transporting tangerines from Georgia to Russia, but their journey was cut short by Russia\'s Veterinary and Phytosanitary Oversight Service Rosselkhoznadzor over a ban on fruit imports from Georgia.Visit also
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Joint Center Publications
Analysis Niklas Swanström and Leah Oppenheimer, "Invisible Ink: Looking for the Lost Trade between China, Russia, and Central Asia", ISDP Policy Brief, 13 March 2013. 
New Silk Road Paper S. Frederick Starr with Adib Farhadi, Finish the Job: Jump-Start the Afghan Economy, December 2012.
Conference Report Cheryl Benard, Eli Sugarman, and Holly Rehm, Cultural Heritage vs. Mining on the New Silk Road? Finding Technical Solutions for Mes Aynak and Beyond (in cooperation with the Alliance for the Restoration of Cultural Heritage) December 2012.
Article Svante E. Cornell, "The 'Afghanization of the North Caucasus: Causes and Implications of a Changing Conflict", in Stephen Blank, ed., Russia's Homegrown Insurgency: Jihad in the North Caucasus, Carlisle, PA: U.S. Army War College Strategic Studies Institute, 2012.