With the presidential elections “fever” over and the president inaugurated, it is now time in Kyrgyzstan to appoint a new government.  The incumbent president, Almazbek Atambayev, ascended to presidency from the post of the prime minister of Kyrgyzstan and triggered the government reshuffling.

On Monday, 19 December 2011, then candidate Prime Minister Omurbek Babanov initiated decreasing the number of ministries. He argued doing so would save some 1bn soms (about 22m USD), and decrease the salary burden on budget by firing over 3,000 state employees. A wise move indeed; however, there is room for further “shrinking”. For instance, the ministry of education and sciences can assume the “youth” component of the ministry for youth, labor and employment. Whereas the ministry for social security could intake the “labor and employment.” Further, the ministry of economy and antimonopoly policies can safely deal with “finances” of the ministry for finances. After all, they are of the same “nature.”The echo of the June 2010 events is still heard in Kyrgyzstan. On Tuesday, 20 December 2011, the Supreme Court ruled the verdict on Azimjan Askarov remain in force. Askarov and a number of defendants were accused of instigating interethnic animosity and killing a police officer, and convicted for life-long imprisonment. Despite national and international human rights organizations’ concerns and the defendants’ statements on unfair trial and torture they were subjected to, the Supreme Court supported lower level courts verdicts. I don’t know whether the lawyers and defendants expected it, the ruling was obvious. Because a different ruling would certainly put the judges in the “non-patriot” position, should they have somehow alleviated the “separatists’” fate. The US embassy and OSCE in Bishkek expressed concern on the verdict.

Despite the fact Kyrgyzstan has vast resources and infrastructure for electricity production, planned and unplanned blackouts are frequent. One of such hit northern Kyrgyzstan on Wednesday, 21 December 2011, when Central Asia’s Unified Energy System (UES) was partially shut down by Kazakhstan. Astana claims Uzbekistan is yielding non-contract electricity from the UES, which resulted in an overload of the system, hence the shutdown. The Kazakh government-owned energy company has been speculating on leaving the UES for some time now. Doing so would spell disaster for Northern Kyrgyzstan, which receives electricity generated in its southern regions via the UES grid crossing through territories of Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. Obviously, Bishkek needs a power line within Kyrgyzstan that would deliver electricity to the North. But a very tiny problem – corruption coupled with incompetence – is preventing that from happening.

While Northern Kyrgyzstan is facing a shortage of electricity, Southern Kyrgyzstan has to cope with winter weather with limited gas. On Thursday, 22 December 2011, gas supply was reduced by over 50% in the city of Osh. The reason, according to officials, is the lowering temperature in Uzbekistan, the sole supplier of gas to Southern Kyrgyzstan. In an ideal situation, Kyrgyz officials are ought to be able to come to firm agreement with Uzbekistan as far as gas supply is concerned, using the “fluid leverage,” i.e. water. Uzbekistan consumes immense amounts of water to irrigate its borderless crop fields in spring and summer, and uses the water coming down the Kyrgyz mountaintops. Bishkek could ideally use this leverage to prevent Uzbekistan from fluctuating prices for gas or using it to press Bishkek to make concessions in certain matters.

The week ended with the approval of the nominated candidates for government. On Friday, 23 December 2011, the Kyrgyz parliament voted almost unanimously to appoint the nominees. Omurbek Babanov has been confirmed as the prime minister. According to Article 84 of the Kyrgyz constitution, a parliamentary majority nominates a candidate for prime minister, but the article does not stipulate or require that the nominee be “from among current MPs.” Oh, well, “Orient is a delicate matter.” The incumbent president was an MP before he rose to PM’s position which was before he became president.

Marat Sartpaev