OSCE Chairperson announces agreement on summit, calls Kyrgyzstan crisis a 'vitality test' for Organization
OSCE Foreign Ministers meeting in Almaty reached consensus on holding a summit in Astana this year and reinforcing OSCE assistance to Kyrgyzstan, said the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Kazakhstan's Secretary of State and Foreign Minister Kanat Saudabayev. READ MORE
OSCE dithers on sending police mission to Kyrgyzstan
The OSCE failed to agree on sending an international police force to Kyrgyzstan in the wake of June's ethnic clashes between that may have killed 2,000 people. A decision on the matter is expected next week. READ MORE
"Reset" Won't Fix It!
Last April 7, the world was too busy to notice Russian fingerprints on the coup that toppled Kyrgyzstani President Kurmanbek Bakiyev. Within weeks, ethnic Kyrgyz and ethnic Uzbeks were at each other’s throats. Moscow, it seems, is good at breaking things, but not at fixing them. READ MORE
Kyrgyzstan's interim leader sworn in as president
Kyrgyzstan's provisional leader Roza Otunbayeva has been sworn in as president, ushering in what the Central Asian nation's government hopes will be a new era of stability and democratic freedoms. READ MORE
Why Russia's Medvedev is blasting ally Kyrgyzstan
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev unexpectedly criticized a government reform vote in Kyrgyzstan that passed Sunday with 91 percent support. READ MORE
Kyrgyzstan votes in favour of new constitution
First results from Sunday's referendum on Kyrgyzstan’s new constitution show voters to be overwhelmingly behind a charter that seeks to give the country’s parliament greater power whilst limiting that of the president. READ MORE
Kyrgyzstan Learns to Survive in Chaos
Amid corruption scandals and ongoing instability it is easy to write off Kyrgyzstan as a state destined to fail due to its dishonest political leaders and impoverished economy. However, despite the fact that the provisional government has not filled all its ministerial seats and faces numerous domestic challenges, there is a strong sense of normality in Kyrgyzstan’s daily life. As local NGO groups like to describe it: “despite troubled government, life continues in Bishkek.” Indeed, in the past two months Kyrgyzstan has changed from being a country where dynastic succession of state power was most likely to a place with free media and active civic engagement. READ MORE
A Russian Made Disaster in Kyrgyzstan
The violence unleashed in Kyrgyzstan is being spun as ethnic rioting. The reality is a good deal more complex, and the blame can be laid directly at Russia's door. Russia's coup against the Bakiyev government which took power in the Tulip Revolution leveraged Uzbek separatists in the Osh Province to suppress Kyrgiz nationalist supporters of Bakiyev. READ MORE
For U.S. and Russia, Kyrgyz Crisis Poses Strategic Risk
The worsening ethnic violence in Kyrgyzstan is hundreds of miles from U.S. and Russian bases in the central Asia country, but it poses thorny strategic dilemmas for both. READ MORE
European Union 'concerned' about Kyrgyz unrest
The EU's foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton has said she is "very concerned" about the unrest in Kyrgystan and has called for a stable government. At least 117 people have been killed in the ethnic clashes so far. READ MORE
