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Moscow grapples with Kyrgyz
uprising
By Victor Yasmann
Leading Russian political figures have
rushed to comment on events in Kyrgyzstan, with
government officials stating unequivocally that
Moscow does not plan to intervene in the former
Soviet republic. Others, however, are urging the
Kremlin to assert itself in the crisis, with many
going so far as to ascribe the uprising to a
Western plot to further reduce Russia's influence
in the region.
Speaking to journalists in
Yerevan, President Vladimir Putin said on March 25
that he was not surprised by the Kyrgyz events,
RFE/RL's Russian Service reported. "They are the
results of the weakness of the previous government
and the accumulation of social and economic
problems," said Putin.
Putin said Russia
regretted that the Kyrgyz opposition used
"illegal" means to achieve its aims.
"Unfortunately, once again in the former Soviet
Union, political problems were solved in an
illegitimate way and were accompanied by chaos and
casualties," Putin added.
Putin also said
he believed Russia could work with the new Kyrgyz
leadership. "These are people we know very well,
and we hope they will restore order there very
soon," he said. Putin also said Moscow had no
objection if former Kyrgyz president Askar Akayev
would like to live in Russia, Ekho Moskvy
reported.
The political crisis is now said
to be quieting down. On Tuesday, the upper house
of the old parliament dissolved, following the
example of the lower house on Monday, claiming it
wanted to ensure stability. Putin, meanwhile, on
Tuesday ordered his government to prepare a
contingency plan to assist Kyrgyzstan. "The people
controlling the situation in the country have
requested for such help, this involves assistance
in carrying out agriculture work and restoration
of infrastructural installations in the capital
Bishkek," he said.
The Russian Foreign
Ministry on March 24 issued a statement saying
Russia would not intervene in Kyrgyzstan. "We
regret that there have been victims there and call
for a return to legal means," Russian daily
Rossiiskaya Gazeta quoted Foreign Minister Sergei
Lavrov as saying. Duma speaker Boris Gryzlov said
on March 24 that "any intervention from outside
Kyrgyzstan would be very unwelcome". "The Kyrgyz
should regulate the situation themselves," Gryzlov
said, according to ORT.
Federation Council
Foreign Affairs Committee chairman Mikhail
Margelov told ORT that "it is most important that
Kyrgyzstan remain a secular state and avoid the
establishment of a regime such as the one the
Taliban set up in Afghanistan".
Federation
Council chairman Sergei Mironov said the Akayev
administration created the conditions for the
recent unrest. "The law must not be violated
neither during elections nor at any other time,"
Mironov said, RBK reported. RTR, meanwhile,
reported on March 24 that the situation at the
Russian military base near Kant, Kyrgyzstan, and
at the Russian Embassy in Bishkek is "normal".
Duma security committee deputy chairman
Mikhail Grishankov (Unified Russia) said the
Kyrgyz events reminded him of the recent
revolution in Georgia, RBK reported. "I am deeply
convinced that the organizer of these two events
should be sought in the same place - the United
States," Grishankov said.
One of Russia's
main goals in Kyrgyzstan now is "to neutralize the
negative impact of outside countries, especially
Europe", he added. Motherland party leader Dmitrii
Rogozin, meanwhile, said that Moscow should warn
all parties that Russia might use force if
necessary, utro.ru reported. "One must not forget
that China has territorial claims against
Kyrgyzstan," Rogozin said. "Without Russia's
support, [Kyrgyzstan] could not exist." Deputy
Duma speaker and Liberal Democratic Party of
Russia head Vladimir Zhirinovskii said that Russia
should step in decisively "to stop the 'Tulip'
Revolution".
ORT commentator Mikhail
Leontev, known for his vocal anti-Americanism,
said that the US was behind the events in
Kyrgyzstan and that Washington had decided "to
obliterate all Russian influence in the
post-Soviet space". "There is no such thing as a
'velvet' revolution," Leontev said. "A revolution
always means self-sacrifice, victims and blood. If
someone orchestrated mass disturbances to restore
power to a bunch of disgraced former ministers and
senior bureaucrats, that is not a revolution."
Konstantin Zatulin, director of the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
Institute, told TV-Tsentr on March 24 that Russia
had no legal or formal grounds to intervene in
Kyrgyzstan and that the Collective Security
Treaty, to which both countries are signatories,
did not have any provisions covering the current
situation. He noted there was no foreign
aggression against Kyrgyzstan and that Akayev did
not ask for Russian assistance. Zatulin said the
uprising was a domestic crisis caused by uneven
economic development and the unfair distribution
of wealth and power.
Zatulin, who usually
espouses national-patriotic views, was extremely
mild in describing the Kyrgyz situation. "It would
be a mistake to call Akayev a pro-Russian figure
and to say the opposition is controlled from
abroad," he said. "We see no traces of America or
anybody else there. All the events have a local
character." Zatulin added that Russia might
intervene in the future if the situation in
Kyrgyzstan got out of hand or if the new
government asked for assistance.
Zatulin
also said that the CIS was not only an
organization but a geographic entity that could
not be changed. He added that there was no reason
to think the new Kyrgyz administration would be
more anti-Russian or anti-CIS than former
president Akayev's was. He said there was a limit
to how much Russia's influence in the region could
be reduced. "Whatever happens, Russia will remain
the strongest, biggest and most resource-rich
country in the region," Zatulin noted.
Copyright (c) 2005, RFE/RL Inc.
Reprinted with the permission of Radio Free Europe/Radio
Liberty,
1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington DC 20036 |
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