Did not regret the father

Former President of Kyrgyzstan was deprived of the inviolability of the parliament he gained and his own successor

In Kyrgyzstan, an unprecedented decision was made by the standards of Asian democracy: on Thursday, June 27, the country's parliament, Kenesh, deprived the inviolability of the former president Almazbek Atambayev. Within an hour and a half, the Prosecutor General read charges of especially serious crimes against the former head of state from the rostrum of parliament, after which 103 deputies of 109 people voted to deprive the status of the ex-president. Now Atambayev can be summoned for interrogation with the charges of five of the six episodes incriminated to him. The key of them are corruption when concluding contracts for the modernization of the Bishkek CHP and the illegal exemption of the criminal authority of Aziz Batukaev.

The matter, of course, is not only in these crimes. But in order to understand this, you need to return a few years ago.

After two revolutions experienced - in 2005 and 2010 - Kyrgyzstan changed the legislation so that the president could not be more than one period, and also strengthen the role of parliament. This was done so that the head of the state does not have a temptation to become a dictator, what kind of tricks Akayev and Kurmanbek Bakiev were previously flooded. However, the new system failed almost immediately, says a political scientist, an expert on Central Asia, Arkady Dubnov.

“Atambayev, having worked one period, could not resist the temptation to preserve all the levers in his hands, becoming a shadow leader in power, and claim the role of the father of the nation,” says Dubnov.

In order to maintain control of the country, Atambayev prepared a successor in the person of the former Prime Minister Uraoronbai Jeenbekov, and he himself began to claim the role of the speaker of the parliament - the second “first issue” in the state. The parliament itself developed a completely convenient situation, since the Party of the SDPK in which the ex-president was dominant, and in general, the entire Jogorku Kenesh was managed. “In Kyrgyzstan, such a system that could be called the“ blessing of the president, ”the Kyrgyz political expert Seitek Kachkynbai explains. “The parliament is chosen, but most of the candidates are still agreed with the head of state.”

But something went wrong from the very beginning. Atambayev began to hint at the move in public statements that President Jeenbekov owes him all the good at his post. Relatives of the head of state really did not like this - including because Zheenbekov is a native of the southern parts of the country, and indicating northerner Atambayev in a rude form, not causing anything but irritation. In addition, Atambayev tried to carry out an intra -party coup and remove all supporters of the new government from the SDPK. This caused a split in the party: the broken part called itself “SDPK without Atambaev”, held its congress and expressed the loyalty of the current government. The official part of the SDPK re -elected its leader, but the Ministry of Justice controlled by the president decided that Atambayev was no longer the head of the party.

As a result, the former president was forced to leave the party post, and the Jeenbekov vowned with the behavior of Atambayev’s behavior quickly changed a number of government officials who could be loyal to his predecessor (including the head of the national security committee). The president himself frankly spoke out only once - in November 2018. “He loves to scatter such words as“ leisure ”( friend - V.P. ) and“ partyalash ”( one -party - V.P. ). But real friends and single -party people do not do this. The favorite trend of his political strategists is to call me a traitor. Who is someone - time will tell, ”Zheenbekov said in an interview with 24.kg.

In parallel, the process of removing inviolability from the former president developed - and everything began with the communal emergency. In January 2018, an accident occurred at the Bishkek TPP, as a result of which the capital sat for a whole week in winter without hot water and heating. In Bishkek, of course, warm winters, but not so much that people forgive seven frozen days of power. The investigation began, and it turned out that before that the thermal power plant was modernized due to loans from China of 386 million dollars. The Prosecutor General’s Office opened five criminal cases of corruption and theft at once (prosecutors also sat without water), and several high-ranking officials were on the bench, including two prime ministers and Minister of Finance.

But someone was clearly not enough, and the flywheel to relieve immunity from Atambayev was launched. First, deputies made this initiative, then a special commission discussed the idea, then everything reached the prosecutor's office. At each of these stages, the former president had the opportunity to stop everything if he tame his hot temper.

“If Atambaev was silent, perhaps there would be no removal of immunity,” suggests Arkady Dubnov. “But on June 8, at a rally against corruption, he called the parliament“ snotty ”, and everything decided in a matter of weeks.”

A special commission found “signs of a particularly grave crime” in almost everything that was presented to Atambayev. The Prosecutor General voiced this, and the parliament controlled yesterday, including the closest allies, gave his leader yesterday to eat the security forces.

Atambaev himself calls all the accusations “absurd”, his few supporters organized a certain “headquarters” in the Chui region to protect it - primarily information. The former president extended an official statement about what is happening in the parliament “In connection with the desire of the Horonbai Jeenbekov, to eliminate the political opponent in the person of the ex-president of the country,” and rejected all the charges.

It should be noted that, in addition to the history of the CHP, the case is also important with the release of the criminal authority of Aziz Baitukaev in 2013, who was convicted for 16 years for organizing riots, but was released in connection with the diagnosis of blood leukemia. Later it turned out that Baitukaev was not sick with anything, but by that time he had already disappeared in Russia. In this regard, Atambaev addressed the Russian president in his statement.

“I hope that once Baitukaev will tell a manly the whole truth about who organized this scam with his deadly illness and release, who received how much money received for this. I also hope that the Dear V.V. Putin, the President of the Russian Federation, will also say its word on this issue, to whom I have repeatedly turned orally and in writing with a request for Batukaev’s extradition back to Kyrgyzstan, ”says Atambayev.

The worst that the current authorities of Kyrgyzstan can now do is arrest him, says Arkady Dubnov, as this can lead to an exacerbation of relations between the North and South. Moreover, Atambaev, it seems, is not going to run away anywhere and plans to prove his innocence in court. “In this sense, he looks like the [former president of Armenia Robert] Kocharian,” the political scientist compares.

The Kyrgyz political expert Seitek Kachkynbai, on the contrary, believes that the former president is so “tired of everyone” that his further fate is now worried about.

Next year, the country will have parliamentary elections - and if Jogorku Kenesh will gather according to the old principle of “blessing”, this will become a great disappointment for new leaders in the regions of Kyrgyzstan. But about the person who wanted to seem to be the father of all modern Kyrgyz, during the next campaign, it is unlikely that anyone will remember.