According to the Jamestown Foundation, on October 29, Kyrgyz President Kurmanbek Bakiyev promoted his son, Maksim Bakiyev, to lead the Central Agency on Development, Investment, and Innovation. This agency controls all foreign funds entering the country, along with control of major national hydroelectric and gold companies.
Kurmanbek Bakiyev’s network of clients is growing stronger, to the detriment of the country’s population. Kurmanbek has streamlined his power by removing a number of ministries and parliamentary structures, essentially giving himself more power vis-à-vis the bureaucracy. On October 19, Prime Minister Igor Chudinov resigned and Kurmabenk ordered parliament to support his replacement, Daniyar Usenov, who had previously served as the chief of the presidential staff. Family members run the security services. Maksim is also one of the country’s wealthiest entrepreneurs. Now with control of Russia’s $2 billion in credit, and with a governmental regime firmly under his father’s rule, he has nearly no limits on what he can do.
Let’s hope he spends at least some of the money increasing Kyrgyzstan’s domestic capacity for electricity production so as to avoid having gas supplies turned off by Uzbekistan. Currently, Kyrgyzstan is heavily in debt to Uzbekistan and on September 22nd, suspended gas supplies to some cities in the Ferghana Valley. On September 24th, Kyrgyzstan’s government announced plans to ration electricity this winter. With few checks and balances in place, the Kyrgyz people will likely have another difficult winter ahead.