For those of you who may have been caught unawares, this past Monday, March the 8^th celebrated International Women’s Day. This holiday, once a domestic affair in the Soviet Union, has, since it’s fall, burst with excitement onto the international stage. (That last line was a blatantly sensationalized way of reporting that this holiday is still celebrated in the former USSR countries…)

That being said, it really is a wonderful affair. Where some women complain that it serves as just another excuse for their husbands to take them out to eat, and then get drunk themselves, all the while patting themselves on the back, this was not my experience (not exactly, any way.)

On Women’s Day Eve, my dad made dinner, all by himself, and the family girls all received it to high acclaim. The dish, a winter time variant of dimdama: beef, onions and potatoes cooked together in oil, was tasty. Unfortunately, by no fault of my father’s, we had to eat carefully, as we’re getting down to some of the rougher cuts of the winter cow, and little bone fragments are becoming more frequent.

The next day, Women’s Day proper, was a bona fide feast. After being called to dress a slim 30 minutes before the guests would arrive, I found myself in the dining room with 5, only one of whom I’d met. Four were women, and the fifth was a short, happy little Kyrgyz guy with a round face. When I introduced myself, as I do, as Kanibek, he laughed aloud and told me his was Michael. Read the full story »

Last week, strolling through the parks with sunshine and 20°, we thought winter is pretty much over. So we were kind of surprised when we were told yesterday that there is some snow coming up. An really - when we looked out of the window this morning, the whole city had dressed in white, with about 10cm of snow.

Having arrived in Bishkek only last week, this is my first winter day in the city. And to me, the city and all life in it have changed completely overnight. Sidewalks are not exactly a pleasure in summer, but with ice and snow they turn into a real adventure. Small ponds (!) and slippery paving stones motivate pedestriants to produce quasi-olympic achievmements concerning long jump and hurdles.  Women wearing high-heels teeter through ankle-high mud. Bored taxi drivers, who usually sit on the curb stones playing cards, approach top form during fierce snowball fights. Dozens of gardeners walk through the parks, beating the snow off the trees using large spades and axes.

Here are some Bishkek impressions from this morning:

By the way, the weather forecast predicts cosy 24° for next week :-)

We already wrote that Kyrgyz ISPs started blocking independent news websites that are critical of the Kyrgyz government. None of ISPs did not give any comments on it. Most internet users believe that it is due to the blocked websites’ content that is critical of the government that made ISPs block the websites, notably the information about Eugene Gourevitch, ex-director general of MGN Group, a company that managed the assets of the Development Fund of Kyrgyzstan (Italian court accused Gourevitch of large scale fraud and issued an arrest warrant for him).

Not only ISPs, but owners of internet forums are also filtering the content. Moderators at the popular internet forum Diesel have been blocking and deleting [ru] the topics opened to discuss Eugene Gourevitch. However, no one knows whether or not ISPs and internet forums were forced by the government to filter the content or it is a self-censorship act in order not to mess with authorities. In any case, it is an indicator of deterioration of freedom of speech in the country.

Despite the block, lots of internet users are using different proxy servers and anonymizers that help bypassing the blocks. However, some proxy servers are not correctly adjusted to display Cyrillic letters. NinjaProxy, most popular proxy server among Kyrgyz internet users, is one of them. Here is the picture of how it displays blocked web-site of Ferghana.Ru:

There are tons of other proxy servers that do not have such problems, and we could list them here in order to help those who encounter abovementioned problem. But we wont, as most of them are are difficult to use and full of different ads and pop-up windows that irrirate people much. And there is an easy way for bypassing the blocks - via Google Translate. Here is a video that we made today that shows how you can use Google Translete to access blocked web-sites:

Today, since the early morning, internet users around Kyrgyzstan have been discussing the apparent blocking by Kyrgyz ISPs of the website of Ferghana.Ru, the popular independent web-site that is critical of Central Asian governments.

Daniil Kislov, founder and editor-in-chief of Ferghana.Ru, told neweurasia that it is the first time this has ever happened in Kyrgyzstan.  Kislov believes an article by Eugene Gourevitch, the ex-director general of MGN Group that managed the assets of the Development Fund of the Kyrgyz Republic, is the reason. The article states that the Italian court is accusing Gourevitch of large scale fraud and that Roman Judge Aldo Morgigni has issued an arrest warrant for Gourevitch, who is a US citizen.

The Italian court named Eugene Gourevitch among other 55 associates that were allegedly involved in a fraud that have siphoned an astonishing US$2.7 billion from the wholesale telephony divisions of Telecom Italia SpA and Fastweb SpA between 2003 and 2006. Gourevitch’s Italian associates allegedly employed fictitious receipts for telephony. Judge Morgigni’s 1,600 page arrest warrant claims “Gourevitch used his international contacts and financial expertise to help the Italian criminals launder their illicit profits”.

MGN Asset Management, a subsidiary of MGN Group, won a tender in September 2009 organized by the Development Fund for consultancy services and management of its assets. After that, Gourevitch has become a target for many Kyrgyz journalists. Read the full story »

Most Kyrgyzstanis were surprised by the news that on February 23, 2010, a ringleader of the Jundallah terrorist group, Abdolmalek Rigi, was arrested during the flight from Dubai, bound to Bishkek in Kyrgyzstan Airlways’ plane.

The airplane of the Kyrgyzstan Airways was reportedly forced by Iranian Navy fighter planes to land in Bandar-Abbas, Iran, where Rigi was arrested, when he stepped on Iranian soil. Kyrgyzstani were asking questions like “what a leader of notorious Iranian terrorist group would do in Bishkek?” Media was going crazy giving different perspectives on the incident.

However, several days later, Abdolmalek Rigi answered himself why he was heading to Bishkek. According to the interview he give to Press TV, an Iranian TV channel, he was going to Bishkek to meet with a high ranking US official, who, as Rigi believes, would help Jundullah in getting assistance from US in “creating difficulties for the Islamic Republic of Iran.” If Rigi is telling the truth, then a high-profile US official he was to meet was Richard Holbrooke, US special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, who was in Kyrgyzstan to visit the only US air base in Central Asia.

Below is the interview of Abdolmalek Rigi to Press Tv of Iran:

Journalists at Kloop.kg contacted Kimberly McDonald, Public Affairs Office at the US Embassy in Bishkek, to get US Embassy’s comment on Abdolmalek Rigi’s public statement. McDonald denied any allegations that US supports Iranian terrorist groups saying that it was a mere Iranian propaganda to blame US.

Olga Reshetkova, a skier representing Kyrgyzstan in Winter Olympics 2010 in Vancouver, dropped out of the competition in the qualification of 1.5 km ladies’ individual sprint classic. Reshetkova, who is participating in Winter Olympics for the first time, came 54th out of 54 participants of individual sprint in qualifying race held on February 17.

In individual sprint athletes start separately, and Reshetkova was placed last in qualifications. Failing to gain speed and making several serious mistakes on the track, Reshetkova came last with the result of 4 minutes and 32.96 seconds. Thus losing her chances to enter the top 30 sprinters, who got qualified for quarterfinals.

Winner was 29-year-old Norwegian Marit Bjoergen, who came for almost 55 seconds earlier than Olga Reshetkova. Bjorgen, silver medal winner in Salt Lake City (2002) and Turin (2006), won the gold medal in this race later that same day. Read the full story »

Old man in Aksy village (Photo by Fergana.Ru)

The Kyrgyz government is planning to launch the “Kurultai of Harmony” on March 23, 2010, during which 750 community representatives throughout the whole of Kyrgyztan shall gather in Bishkek for direct dialogue with state officials.  The Kurultai shall headed by Bakiev himself.  It’s intended to to resolve several important problems.

Many people have been wondering — does the country really need it?

Read the full story »

"Woman carrying corn sticks to Uzbekistan via "Dustlik" border checkpoint" Photography by Flickr uzer Shok (CC-usage)

Fergana.Ru was first to write [ru] about a fact that Uzbekistan has put a resitriction to Kyrgyz citizen to visit Uzbekistan more once in three months. Later, the Uzbek service of Radio Liberty reported [uz] from “Dustlik”, one of the biggest checkpoints along the Kyrgyz-Uzbek border, that several residents of Osh city (the administrative center of Osh region of Kyrgyzstan) have already experienced the effect of new restrictive measures.

These people wanted to get into the neighboring country through the border checkpoint “Dustlik”, but were stopped by Uzbek border guards. Kyrgyz citizens, who were refused the entry, told that they we not allowed to go to Uzbekistan, because they have already visited Uzbekistan several weeks ago.

The Uzbek service of Radio Liberty interviewed Kyrgyz citizens, who could not pass the border:

“We were going to pass the border. Two women told us that they were not allowed to enter Uzbekistan, because now Kyrgyz citizen can visit Uzbekistan only once in three months.”

“We standed on the boder in cold. We came here in the morning, the queue was long. Then some people were coming back. We asked them why they did not pass the border. They explained that there was a new law that allowed Kyrgyz citizen to enter Uzbekistan only one time in three months.

However, RFE/RL gives two different information. Their English web site reports that the limits on visits to Kyrgyz citizens is one entry per month, whereas the Uzbek service informs it is once in three months.

The Kyrgyz Border Service commented [ru] on the situation saying that the Uzbek side did not inform them about the new regulations. As a result, the Kyrgyz Border Service was unable to disseminate information about the new rule among Kyrgyz citizens.

Fergana.Ru reports [ru] that the tightening of the border regime is due to “the changes in domestic law” of Uzbekistan, but the website does not clarify which law.

Since the fall of the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan did a lot to close its border with Kyrgyzstan, especially in Osh, Karasuu and Jalalabat cities. The Uzbek government have erected barbed wire fences along the border and dug trenches along barbed wire fences. Experts believe that these actions were done to eliminate the smuggling of goods from Osh and Karasuu markets that mainly sell Chinese-made cheap products.

But how on Earth can one explain the latest regulation of the Uzbek government to limit the number of visits of Kyrgyz citizens to Uzbekistan?

UPDATE (15-Feb-2010): The Border Service of Kyrgyzstan informed [ru] mass media that Uzbekistan removed the visiting limits, and now Kyrgyz citizen can cross the border to Uzbekistan according to the current regulation under which Kyrgyz citizen can stay in the territory of Uzbekistan for 60 days without getting visa (however, they must get registered in local police office in three working days). But still, there are no official explanations form the Uzbek government about this incident, except the satement [ru] of Razzak Shaymardonov, head of the border security committee at the National Security Agency (former KGB), where he denied the visiting limits for Kyrgyz citizens.

What a wonderful weather outside! It has been snowing in Bishkek for the past three days. As the temperature has been below zero, snow is not melting down. It is cold, and eveything in white. Bishkek residents are happy. Some are enjoying real winter weather. Others are happy that snow is hiding all the dirt in the city.

“Kyrgyzgidromet“, a Kyrgyz hydrometeorology center, states [ru] that for the past three days Bishkek has seen 70% of the monthly norm of precipitation.

Here are some pictures of the city under snow.

Young active people do their best in internships in diffrent professions, besides only studying. Antonio Henriques, one of 20 top-managers in AIESEC, has visited 28 countries for three years. He tells neweurasia about advantages and achievements of active youth and compares young people in other counties with Kyrgyz students.

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 12:30 — 11.4MB)