Several days ago, a Kyrgyz referendum to limit or expand the power of the President closed, finding promising results for the executive. The Central Asian state’s latest leader, President Sadyr Japarov, came into power last Fall in a shockingly nonviolent fashion. Although he and his supporters have called it a “third revolution” for Kyrgyzstan, the transfer of power was made lawful and peaceful.
Japarov, as Kyrgyz Prime Minister, amended their constitution to allow for such referendums to be called upon by a people’s assembly. Japarov cites tackling corruption to be his chief concern as President, and that the office should need the authority to unilaterally eliminate the influence of independent actors and foreign powers in the ministry and executive office of Kyrgyzstan. Similar to other former Soviet states in its proximity, it’s undergoing a vital campaign for transparency to alleviate public concerns of corruption within the new administration and future ones alike, establishing a “fair transparent state” with “no room anymore for corrupt actions in the government’s system.”
Other issues on the agenda of President Jarapov include environmentalist initiatives, which he’s criticized past governments for neglecting and downplaying. Alongside this is a goal of growing domestic industry by cooperating with Russia to promote foreign investments; Kyrgyzstan, like its neighbor Tajikistan, has over a million of its 6.5 million populace working in other countries to send home remittances and pay bills for their families. Enabling business to operate from within Kyrgyzstan would mitigate this problem, working towards the 5-year goal of Jarapov to solve the problem and prevent a future “brain drain.”
Kyrgyzstan is economically very rich, with readily available gold, uranium, and mercury, with a diverse agricultural industry. However, a corrupt government mismanaging business symptomatic of regulatory capture has left much of the country living on low wages, while others work in other neighboring countries.
Although a nationalist and populist approach to industry generally aggravates neighbors, Kyrgyzstan is in a unique position to actually strengthen relations given their untapped access to resources. Russia and China also encourage the Kyrgyz economy to recover because it helps stabilize the regions of their own countries at risk; Chechnya already has extremist problems, and there’s no reason to needlessly exacerbate them with unstable neighbors. Xinjiang in China faces the same concern, attempting to invest millions into the state. China lately has had a mass migration of Uyghurs into Kyrgyzstan, causing drug trafficking problems about western China.
Kyrgyzstan is geostrategically important to Russia in particular as a Central Asian airstrip extending southward towards Afghanistan and Pakistan, where diplomatic and military influence has been long-strived for. Kyrgyzstan in the past has taken advantage of this asset of theirs to up the ante on an arms deal by inviting western competition to buy them out, as everyone has some interest in Afghanistan.