PETER RUTLAND

The bloody and chaotic overthrow of the Bakiev regime is not good news for anybody. For Western liberals, it merely highlights the sorry conditions in Kyrgyzstan, the one country in Central Asia that had tried to follow Western advice about the benefits of democratization, market reform and free trade.

ALISHER KHAMIDOV

The developments in Kyrgyzstan are claiming much of our attention. We're still receiving controversial reports and updates from Kyrgyzstan. Many of us are grappling with similar questions: What's happening in Kyrgyzstan? Are we talking about another Tulip revolution? How are the current protests similar or different from the Tulip revolution? So what are broader patterns here?

DENIS KIM

In December 2009, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, President of Kyrgyzstan, launched the constitutional reform. The official reason is the constitutional amendments are needed to define the powers of the President, the Parliament and the Cabinet, considering the administrative reform in Kyrgyzstan.

DENIS KIM

All the main political and economic resources will be concentrated in Kurmanbek Bakiyev's hands. Strengthening of the presidential power in the republic can be regarded as a result of Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s winning the July 2009 presidential election by a landslide.

DAVID GOZER

Now Kyrgyzstan is one of the states whose corruption level is the highest in the world. President Kurmanbek Bakiyev knows that and means to alter the tendency reforming the government administration system.

AZAMAT TEMIRKULOV

President Bakiyev’s decision is reasonable. This is not a redistribution of powers between the Parliament and the President or between the President and the Cabinet in favor of Kurmanbek Bakiyev.

ZHIBEK SYZDYKOVA

If Kurmanbek Bakiyev is reelected, there may appear some risks. Firstly, corruption and clan system may continue to exist. Secondly, Kyrgyzstan resembles the neighboring countries more and more, it becomes more authoritarian, which aggravates its domestic problems. 

SERGEY MASAULOV

The main issue that Kyrgyzstan will have to solve electing the President on July 23, 2009 is the country's future rather than a new person in President’s office.

YURI PANASIK

The world financial crisis is a real challenge not only for Russia but also for the regional integration organizations and bilateral alliances in the former Soviet Union where Russia pretends to be the leader. This offers new opportunities as well as new challenges to Russia.

ZHIBEK SYZDYKOVA

The visit of President Kurmanbek Bakiyev of Kyrgyzstan to Moscow on February 3-4 showed Bishkek’s intention of improving the relations with Russia.

ANATOLY TSYGANOK

Bishkek’s foreign policy is similar to that one of Astana. Kyrgyzstan, like Kazakhstan, finds it important to keep on friendly terms both with the U.S.A. and Russia.

ASKAR AKAYEV

From 1998 to 2004 we had kept the inflation at the level of 3-4%. This was the best result in the CIS. At present the inflation makes up 30-40%. 40% is a critical level, if it heightened, Kyrgyzstan would face economic recession.  

TAMERLAN IBRAIMOV

The results of the three-year presidency of Kurmanbek Bakiyev are not impressive. Many tasks that were set in 2005 have not been fulfilled yet.

ALEXANDER KNYAZEV

Central Asia is a geographic, rather than a geopolitical entity, which is characterized by the absence of any political or economic uniformity. There are serious political, economic and other differences among the states in the region, which are exacerbated by the border, territorial and resources claims. All of these impede political and military integration.

NARYN AIYP

10 Kyrgyzstani citizens have been killed in Moscow and St. Petersburg since the beginning of 2008. All of them were killed without obvious reasons – in the street unknown people sneaked up to a person from behind, stabbed him or her with a knife and ran away.   

SERGEY MASAULOV

The parliamentary election was quite a useful experience for many Kyrgyz parties as practical rather than developmental elaboration of their future actions. Kyrgyzstan is undergoing the process of building real political parties. How it will go now depends solely on the parties’ own choice.

TAMERLAN IBRAIMOV

According to the Central Election Committee, 2.4 million people (76 percent of voters) supported the new Constitution and the Election Code. The turnout was 80.64 percent (to believe the Central Election Committee). A number of NGOs report that the turnout was much lower – about 30-40 percent of voters.

VALENTIN BOGATYREV

Kyrgyzstan has a lot of opportunities in the Shanghai Cooperation Organization. Future development of our country, which is located in the middle of Asia and does not have much oil and gas, depends on the regional economic projects in a large measure.

DENIS KIM

On June 2 at the Second Meeting of the Kyrgyz Citizens the Kyrgyz opposition leader Felix Kulov advanced an initiative to create the confederation of Russia and Kyrgyzstan.

NOOKATBEK IDRISOV

Despite of the fact that after the Tulip Revolution (March 24, 2005) the new people came into power in Kyrgyzstan, the corrupt policy which had been pursued by the overthrown government was followed in the country.

ANDREY GROZIN

Different scenarios can be expected to take place in Kyrgyzstan. Now the sides do not tend to conflict with each other and to use force. The opposition is not interested in that scenario since inevitable victims will discredit the opposition leaders.

ALEXANDER KNYAZEV

Bakiyev proves himself to be a strong politician since he is ready to negotiate with the opposition forces and make a compromise with them. That is showed by the appointment of the eminent oppositionist Almaz Atambayev as Prime Minister.

ANDREY GROZIN

As soon as Kyrgyz president Kurmanbek Bakiyev nominated Azim Isabekov for the post of prime minister (on January 26), it became possible to speak about the breakup of the Bakiyev-Kulov alliance.

ZAINIDIN KURMANOV

Nothing has been changed in terms of the form of government. The presidential-parliamentary system with the President keeping the dominant role has been preserved.

NUR OMAROV

No doubt, the Bakiyev-Kulov alliance will survive the Cabinet’s resignation. Felix Kulov will be the acting Prime Minister and keep the powers enlarged by the new Constitution.

ALEXANDER KADYRBAYEV

President Bakiyev is interested in preserving the presidential form of government. But the situation requires that he should act otherwise. As a result, in Kyrgyzstan the parliamentary-presidential republic can be formed.

VLADIMIR ZHARIKHIN

NUR OMAROV

The opposition has no resources to hold a continuous rally, in fact the opposition’s forces can last only a week. Therefore, they only have the next week to resolve all the questions with the President.

NUR OMAROV

Since nobody wants serious shocks in Kyrgyzstan, the government and the opposition have to compromise. However, the action towards Tekebayev has indicated that the authorities are not ready for that.

ANDREY GROZIN

The entire complicated situation in Kyrgyzstan, the rally organized by supporters of MP Ryspek Akmatbayev, killed on May 10, dismissals of high-ranking officials – all of that is tightly connected to the visit of Uzbek President Islom Karimov to Russia. 

ANDREY GROZIN

I would not say that because of raising a fee for the USA for using the Kyrgyz military bases, the current policy pursued by the Kyrgyz authorities has become less pro-Western than it was under former President Askar Akayev.

VYACHESLAV KHAMISOV

The political crisis in Kyrgyzstan is not over yet. It is regrettable that much energy and financial resources are being spent on clan wars whereas they could have been better employed in supporting country’s failing economy.

ARKADY DUBNOV

The approval of Felix Kulov as the Prime-Minister of the Republic of Kyrgyzstan by the Kyrgyz Parliament on September 1, 2005 is a very significant event in the Kyrgyz politics. On the one hand, it is the fulfillment by a new President Kurmanbek Bakiyev of his promise which used to be the main condition of the signed with Kulov in the middle of May, 2005 memorandum on creation of the election alliance between the two politicians. In case he would be elected President, Bakiyev promised to put Kulov in nomination for the post of Prime-Minister.

ANDREY GROZIN

Despite the change of power in Kyrgyzstan, the agenda of negotiations between Moscow and Bishkek will not be seriously altered. The reason for that lays in the economic sphere as well as in tricky political conditions. Those are not the “Tulip Revolution” leaders’ wishes or personal interests which determine the content of the agenda, but the complexity of the current situation. This year’s economic outcomes are going to be deplorable and the most unsuccessful for the last five years. In these circumstances the Kyrgyz authorities need additional resources in order to retain the power.

ALBERT BOGDANOV

The attitude of Russia, USA and China to the new Kyrgyz authorities is determined by the political situation in Kyrgyzstan. There are a lot of problems there.

ALEXEI MAKARKIN

It was not difficult to predict the outcome of the presidential elections in Kyrgyzstan. Once the two favorites, Kurmanbek Bakiyev and Felix Kulov, reached a power-sharing pact, the victory of the former was guaranteed. But the elections were not free of intrigue. It was manifest in the positions of observes from different international structures.

VIKTOR KOVTUNOVSKY

If the new Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev does not establish dictatorship as his predecessor did, the redivision of power and political conflicts will be permanent. But it will not be a continuation of the “tulip revolution”. It will be a normal situation which is peculiar to the democratic regimes.

ALEXEI MAKARKIN

Presidential elections will take place in Kyrgyzstan on July 10. However, it is clear already who will take the presidential office if nothing extraordinary happens: Kurmanbek Bakiyev, Kyrgyzstan's incumbent premier and acting president.

The case of Kurmanbek Bakiyev is consistent with the logic of the Belarusian authorities’ actions towards the plane crash near Smolensk. The decisions not to demonstrate the “Katyn” film and not to announce the mourning were made emotionally, to spite Moscow and Warsaw, without thinking about their consequences and about reaction of the society and the neighbouring countries.

The early April upheaval in Kyrgyzstan is helping to define what the Collective Security Treaty Organization is, and is not.

Kazakhstan, currently chairing the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), by extricating the former Kyrgyz President, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, from internal exile in Jalalabad has highlighted opaque features of the crisis.

Kyrgyzstan's opposition says it has taken control of the government and dissolved parliament after a day of violent unrest that left at least 68 people dead and hundreds more wounded.

As President Kurmanbek Bakiyev confronts a political crisis in Kyrgyzstan, he is not getting any help from Moscow. If anything, the Kremlin appears intent on turning up the heat on the embattled Kyrgyz leader.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and his Kyrgyz counterpart Kurmanbek Bakiyev, exchange the signed copies of a joint memorandum on Russia's new base in Kyrgyzstan during their meeting at Cholpon-Ata.

Speculation has recently mounted that Bishkek will agree to a request from Moscow to open a new Russian military base in southern Kyrgyzstan.

As Kyrgyzstan's parliament prepares to take up the question of closing the U.S. air base at Manas Airport, it appears Kyrgyzstan's "multivector" foreign policy may be coming to an end.

The interests of Kyrgyzstan and, accordingly, its policy with respect to the U.S. during the years of independence have not gone beyond the corridor of commercial preferences.

But was it a revolution, as so many Kyrgyz people and the government say? Roza Otunbaeva, a former foreign minister and now a leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party, says that there was a revolt against the old order.

What is the ethnic and gender composition of the new parliament of Kyrgyzstan? Does its composition reflect the regional division that exists in the republic?

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiev’s party appears to have won every available seat in parliament in the December 16 elections. But the opposition says it won’t accept the results.

Kyrgyzstan has maintained the image as the most democratic of the Central Asian states. But the opposition has criticized Bakiev numerous times for simply being a new version of the former authoritarian president.

In the last year, Bishkek and Bejing have established several joint ventures to build homes and factories in Osh, and four brick factories have already been constructed. The mayor welcomes such joint enterprises, which he said will mean more jobs and better infrastructure for the city.

Russian is still an essential lingua franca at home and abroad, but Kyrgyz and Uzbek parents often opt for Russian schooling because the teaching is better.

Kyrgyz politics resembles a game of chess between the two main protagonists – the president and Felix Kulov, the leader of the United Front for a Worthy Future for Kyrgyzstan.

It is generally agreed that the road to democracy can be rocky and winding. Kyrgyzstan has had many problems in its attempts to establish democracy.

In the age of the USA-led globalization the development of the cooperation between the Central Asian states and Russia may turn out to be of pivotal importance for the region’s nations.

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev has made reshuffles among the top officials.

The March revolution has aggravated the economic problems of Kyrgyzstan.

Yesterday Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev arrived in Moscow. As the head of state he went abroad only once – to take part in the CIS Summit which was held in the city of Kazan.

Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev will deal with the bureaucrats by himself, but he will invite Russian companies to put in order country’s power economy.

The very first day after his inauguration new Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev appointed his partner in electoral campaign Felix Kulov to the post of acting Prime Minister.

The reasons of the revolution in Bishkek can be revealed through attitude towards the American military base in Kyrgyzstan.

Many people believe that resignation of Kyrgyz President Askar Akayev was initiated by Washington. But now the events in Kyrgyzstan point out that Russia or China could stand behind the “tulip revolution”.