Paul
Goble
Staunton, September 14 – Four days
ago, Raimkul Attakurov, the former Kyrgyz ambassador to Moscow and current head
of the Kyrgyz diaspora there, said that many people in his country would like
to see it become part of the Russian Federation and trigger the formation of “a
USSR 2.0” (pravda.ru/world/1527065-kirgiziya_rossiya/).
Attakurov said that the two
countries share much in common, that Russian is already a state language in
Kyrgyzstan, and that the Kyrgyz would like to be together with the Russians
rather than separated by a state border. At a time when many are talking about
the future of the Union state of Russia and Belarus, that comment naturally
attracted attention.
Was this an indication that the
Kremlin is pushing for something more grandiose than just Belarus? Or was it a
new move by Bishkek to curry favor in Moscow in the hopes of getting more
support for its ailing economy? In fact, as Sergey Masaulov of the Information
and Analytic Center for Moscow State University says, the truth is far less
dramatic (ia-centr.ru/experts/sergey-masaulov/otvlech-ot-vyborov-komu-vygodna-tema-prisoedineniya-kyrgyzstana-k-rf/).
According to the Central Asian
specialists, some Kyrgyz officials have raised the issue of a possible reunification
of Kyrgyzstan with Russia every time there has been a political crisis or even
the threat of one in Kyrgyzstan. In three
weeks, Kyrgyzstan faces elections; and so a Kyrgyz official is acting as others
have before earlier elections.
Such talk attracts attention but it
also has the effect of distracting people from the real issues and real
prospects of Kyrgyzstan in the coming months. Masaulov suggests that is what
Attakurov’s words are all about and that they should be dismissed as nothing more
than the normal election period commentaries in Kyrgyzstan.
As all too often happens, the real
story is far less dramatic than the first reports suggest.
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