Amazing Reportage from Kyrgyzstan

Nathan and his friends over at Registran.net are a wonderful source of information on what is happening in Kyrgyzstan. Today they post a first-hand account by Elnura Osmonalieva of Bishkek, complete with pictures [including one definitely hot babe]. Check it out here.

But let's not get too excited yet. Captain Ed has some cautionary observations here. The opposition leaders do not come to the table with completely clean hands. He notes that Felix Kukov, the Interior Minister in the new government taking shape, was formerly the head of the Kyrgyz version of the KGB and is closely associated with Putin. He fears that Putin might be trying to influence the new government -- to which I say, "so what?"

This doesn't bother me as much as it does the Captain and many other people. There are many reasons for the new Kyrgyzstani government to seek close relations with Moscow -- not the least being an aggressively expansionist China to their east. Putin's embrace of the new government could be nothing more than accommodation to circumstances he cannot control. And, regarding the intelligence background of some members of the new government -- let's not forget that George H. W. Bush was once the head of the CIA.

RELATED:

The Economist asks:

DOES three make a trend? Kirgizstan has become the third post-Soviet republic in which disgruntled voters, unwilling to accept a fraudulent election, have taken matters into their own hands.

My answer: Why yes..., yes it does!

The article goes on to estimate the liklihood of regime change in Kyrgyztan's neighbors. It reports:

Events in Kirgizstan are unlikely to have much effect in Turkmenistan, a North Korea-style dictatorship in the region. But Kirgizstan’s other neighbours, Kazakhstan and Tajikistan, may feel tremors. In Kazakhstan to the north, the president, Nursultan Nazarbaev, has doled out money and favours (from the country’s mineral wealth) to keep himself in power. But there is a visible and lively, if so far unsuccessful, opposition. Tajikistan, which is poorer and endured a civil war in the 1990s, could be shakier. Recent elections, criticised by international observers, strengthened the party of the president, Imomali Rakhmonov. Might he be the next to succumb to Central Asia's new-found people power?

Read the whole thing here.

AND THIS...

Jeremy Page reports for Reuters on the downside of "people power."

After the triumph, the looting: 'It's not a revolution, it's chaos'

From Jeremy Page in Bishkek

GUNFIRE echoed across Bishkek last night as Kyrgyzstan’s new leaders tried to quell looting that erupted after President Akayev was ousted in the third revolution in a former Soviet republic in 18 months.

Police and civilian vigilantes fired shots in the air and fought running battles with crowds of drunk young men beginning a second night of looting in the Kyrgyz capital.

“The city looks as if it has gone mad,” said Felix Kulov, the opposition leader released from prison on Thursday and appointed as security chief of an interim government.

“It’s an orgy,” he said. “We have arrested many people; we are trying to do something, but we physically lack people.”
....
“Bastards!” he said. “This not a revolution, this is just chaos!” Mr Akayev issued a statement from a secret location saying that he was still the President of Kyrgyzstan and would return. “A bunch of irresponsible adventurers and conspirators has taken the path of seizing power with force,” he said in the statement sent by e-mail to Kabar, the Kyrgyz news agency. He denied reports that he had resigned and urged those who had supported the “anti-constitutional coup” to restore constitutional order.

The chaos in Bishkek and Mr Akayev’s defiant words threatened to derail what opposition leaders have compared to the peaceful revolutions in Ukraine last year and Georgia in 2003.

In an earlier post I had suggested that Kyrgyzstan might define the limits of reform. At first this last week's events seemed to dispute that assessment. Now I'm not so sure.

FINALLY:

BBC reports that,

the US state department said the US and Russia would work together to promote a "sense of order" in Kyrgyzstan.

Condoleezza Rice and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov had spoken on the telephone and "saw eye-to-eye on the situation", said state department spokesman Adam Ereli.

Both the US and Russia have military bases in Kyrgyzstan and the means to project influence there. Their agreement to promote order is crucial to the success of the new government. It greatly increases the possibility of a decent outcome to the struggle.