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Eurasia
November 17, 2017 www.intellinews.com I Page 22
which also includes Belarus and Armenia.
"Some people seem to say that Atambayev must bend his knee in front of the rich neighbour and apologise... It is not Atambayev but those who impertinently meddle in our affairs who must apologise; those who wanted to put their flunky [Babanov] on the chair of the sovereign Kyr- gyzstan president," Atambayev added. "Yes, their flunky will sit. However, not on the presidential chair but in a prison cell."
The Kyrgyz Prosecutor-General's Office announced on November 4 that it had opened
a criminal case against Babanov and other unidentified individuals of "stoking ethnic, racial, and religious hatred" and "publicly calling for the violent change of the constitutional order". He has since stepped down as leader of the Respublika-Ata-Jurt parliamentary faction.
Kyrgyzstan joined the EEU in August 2015 with the hope of securing ease of access for its agricul- tural products, among other goods, to Kazakhstan and Russia. Kazakhstan has since been making Kyrgyzstan’s participation difficult by demanding that Kyrgyzstan meet sanitary standards of the
EEU. Moreover, the bloc has hit Kyrgyzstan’s re- export market – especially, the used car market and the Dordoi bazaar, which served as a conduit for cheap Chinese goods flowing into Russia and the rest of Central Asia.
"In spring 2014, at the whim of a similar aged dictator in another neighbouring republic, our southern regions were cut off from natural gas. I remember how our political wirepullers, our lawmakers shouted then saying that Atambayev must go and bend to the aged dictator," Atambayev added, referring to the late Uzbek autocrat Islam Karimov’s decision in 2014 to
cut off gas supplies to Kyrgyzstan. Uzbekistan mended its ties with Kyrgyzstan after Karimov died in 2016 and reform-minded Uzbek President Shavkat Mirziyoyev came to power. Nonetheless, Atambayev’s statements may not be wise, considering he is now leaving his successor with an angry neighbour to deal with.
Mirziyoyev has been attempting to foster regional cooperation in Central Asia as his predecessor’s cautious approach had kept barriers to economic partnership tightly in place.
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