Leaving, extinguish everyone

The President of Kyrgyzstan before leaving the post provoked the largest diplomatic scandal in the region

This week in Kyrgyzstan, the presidential election will be held, and the situation in front of them was heated to the limit. Not only are the two main candidates - Sooronbai Jeenbekov and Omurbek Babanov - arrange mutual diving with the wars of compromises through third parties, so the outgoing president Almazbek Atambayev finally arranged a diplomatic war with neighboring Kazakhstan. In mid -September, the opposition candidate Babanov met in Astana with President Nursultan Nazarbayev, and the official Bishkek already sent a note of protest - they say, it is not so open to show who you are for. This, of course, is cunning: they met with a candidate from the party in Kazakhstan a month earlier, which Astana did not fail to mention her neighbors.

The new conflict seems to be more serious. On October 7, the Deputy Prime Minister Temir Dzhumakadyrov died in Kyrgyzstan in an accident, and Atambaev not only made a sensual speech in memory of his colleague on the same day, but also spoke in relation to Kazakhstan’s intervention in future elections.

“I understand why we so want to impose just such leaders ( I mean Babanov . - V.P. ) Kazakh power. They love Bakiev (Kurmanbek Bakiev - the previous president, who fled from the country during the coup in 2010. - V.P. )! The Bakievs still spend their holidays in Almaty. I have repeatedly heard from the highest people of Kazakhstan that Bakiev correctly shot people. I heard this, ”Almazbek Atambayev, already with this tirade, enjoyed a terrible diplomatic scandal, but it was only the beginning.

Further, the President of Kyrgyzstan, who is called the possible future prime minister of the country in the event of a prolonged candidate, “passed” on the economic successes of a neighboring country, and then hit the patient.

“I support Nazarbayev’s words that he was saying at a meeting with Babanov:“ It is good if the young president is in Kyrgyzstan! ” But we have the oldest president in the president today 20 years younger than Nazarbayev! And I - for more than 16 years. So who needs a young president? To us or Kazakhstan? - impulsively said Atambayev. - Kazakhs are our brothers! We have one blood. Kazakhs are we who, more than 500 years ago, chose Genghisid to Sultan. But sometimes it feels like the Genghisides still rule Kazakhstan, not Kazakhs. No need to meddle with us - we found our way.

Those who sing nightingale today - I will deal with everyone hard until December 1st! I promise! You know my character! If only I will not perish, as Temir Zhumakadyovich Kurmangaziev - I will figure it out! ”

The reaction was not long in coming: on the same day, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan quickly made a sharp statement. “We express our confidence that irresponsible, provocative in essence and false statements for the election purposes of the President of Kyrgyzstan will not be able to damage the centuries -old bonds of friendship and mutual assistance between our countries,” the statement said. In response, Atambaev canceled his participation in a meeting of the Council of the heads of the CIS countries on October 10-11, where Nazarbayev should also be. In Kazakhstani society to Atambayev’s statements, the reaction is mixed: on the one hand, public condemnation, but on the other, internal consent with some theses (first of all, economic and about the age of the head of state).

It is ridiculous that the Kyrgyz president was not going to swear with Kazakhstan. Its main goal is the discrediting of Omurbek Babanov, says Kazakh political scientist Dosym Satpaev. “This is a too serious competitor for his prostate Jeenbekov, and everything suggests that even for Atambayev himself the intensity of the elections and their unpredictability are too great,” says Satpaev. - In this sense, we can say that he went too far. But the elections end sooner or later, and a hangover comes. I think that pragmatism will exceed emotionality, and it will not reach serious disagreement. ”

The presence of a scandal will interfere with Kyrgyzstan himself, the expert adds, since he is greatly connected with Kazakhstan with economic threads: they are together in the Eurasian Union, and trade from Kyrgyzstan, until the neighboring Uzbekistan caught up with Kazakhstan in the reform, is passionate with Astana. But in what relations after these statements will be the relationship of the two countries - it is not very clear. The opposition candidate Babanov is unlikely to win, the expert in Central Asia Arkady Dubnov believes: the best that awaits him is the second round. But even if something incredible happens, Atambaev from politics just does not leave. “He will not be the prime minister, as he wanted before, but he will come up with such a position-at the head of the same Social Democratic Party ( forms the majority in the Parliament of Kyrgyzstan. - V.P. )-which will allow him to remain a shadow leader of the country,” says Dubnov. And the diplomatic scandal between the two countries is not the end of history.

Elections in Kyrgyzstan are scheduled for October 15. 11 candidates apply for the presidency. However, regardless of who wins, victory will not make him president, since the modern history of Kyrgyzstan shows that there is little to become a triumph - this triumph needs to be kept.