By Eka Janashia (the 05/02/2014 issue of the CACI Analyst)
On January 29, an anonymous YouTube user uploaded a 4-minute video featuring Georgia's former Minister of Internal Affairs, Vano Merabishvili, ordering his subordinates to bring him two corpses: “I want two men, two dead bodies, bring me two dead bodies. That’s it. Reward will be high.” The video shows the preparation for the special search operation to hunt down the escaped suspects of the 2009 Mukhrovani mutiny.
By Farhad Aliyev (the 22/01/2014 issue of the CACI Analyst)
The Geneva interim agreement in November, 2013, between six world powers and Iran on its disputed nuclear program could mark the start of one of the most significant transformations in the Middle East over the last decades, with ramifications across Eurasia. Azerbaijan, as one of Iran's neighbors and sharing certain religious, ethnic, and cultural commonalities with Iran, should be considered among the countries most influenced by the success of negotiations with Iran, even in terms of Azerbaijan's domestic development.
By Eka Janashia (the 22/01/2014 issue of the CACI Analyst)
2013 saw a significant depreciation of the Georgian national currency Lari (GEL) compared to both the US$ and the Euro. From the beginning of last year until now, the Lari's exchange rate has dropped against the U.S. and EU currency by over 5 and 7 percent respectively. Georgia's Minister of Finance, Nodar Khaduri, Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Giorgi Kvirikashvili, and the President of the National Bank of Georgia (NBG), Giorgi Kadagidze, insist that there is no reason for panic. However, the steady and speedy depreciation of the Lari has already triggered undesirable expectations among consumers and the business sector.
The Central Asia-Caucasus Analyst is a biweekly publication of the Central Asia-Caucasus Institute & Silk Road Studies Program, a Joint Transatlantic Research and Policy Center affiliated with the American Foreign Policy Council, Washington DC., and the Institute for Security and Development Policy, Stockholm. For 15 years, the Analyst has brought cutting edge analysis of the region geared toward a practitioner audience.
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