| atbell |
This isn't getting the attention it should be getting ... lets see if I can pull out a few choice quotes:
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Financial Times; paraphrased
3 weeks ago demonstrators began as a protest against electricity prices 'in the remote copper and gold belt of Kyrgystan would develop into a full-blown revolution that toppled a central Asian government.'
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/1950de36-...144feab49a.html
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3 weeks was all it took. This is without financing from Russia, without some kind of trained paramilitary, it was angry people who's standard of living was set to decline due to decreases in disposable income that were expected to result from having to pay more for electricity.
The ousted president, Kurmanbek Bakiyev, was the leader of the opposition movement involved in the 'Tulip' revolution, a serries of colour revolutions in many of the former Russian occupied territories. I don't know that these were supported directly by the US but I do know that, this one in particular, many of them represented shifts away from past Russian leadership, aka - towards the US interest. This can be seen in the cooperation Mr. Bakiyev gave the US when the air base was needed, initially a short term base, to supply the Northern Aliance in Afghanistan.
The Russian stance seems to be officially that they want stability not influence in this region.
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Sergi Karaganov, head of Russia's Council on Foreign Defense Policy
Have we benifited from the Kyrgystan revolution? No, because now we have one more problem. Kyrgystan is a failed state, a potential source of Islamic fundamentalisim, terrorisim and chaos in the region.
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There are two things I really don't like about this development.
1. The area looks a lot like the Balkans circa 1914. It is a region of rough and tumble states prone to in fighting and being courted on all sides by a number of different interests. In Kyr. there are 'Meskhettian Turks', Uzbeks, ethnic Kyrgysaks, and a number of other minorities. The Russians, the Americans, the Iranians, the Chinese, and the vauge stateless 'Islamisists' are all trying to increase influence in the area.
The massive oil reserves are the main thing that external actors are looking to get a hold of. Securing oil pipelines to the biggest feilds would ensure decades of prosperity for which ever group is able to do so. A good starter book on the area is "The New Great Game" which is written by a guy who does a circuit of the Caspian as the US is moving in to Afghan. The author was in Kyr. when the first US planes began setting down to prepare for the invasion.
2. As the interim leader of Kyrgyzstan, Rosa Otunbayeva, points out "Revolution is infectious."
Is this having an effect on what's gonig on in Thailand right now? Hard to say.
My memory seems to tell me that revolutionaries around the world have drawn inspiration from sucess and others seem to come fast and furious after the fact.
US revolution and the French revolution are pretty close are they not?
I can't think of others but I bet they can be found. |
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