Kyrgyz politicians do not have firm convictions — they change their ideological assessments like gloves. The head of the Department for Central Asia and Kazakhstan of the Institute of CIS Countries, Andrei Grozin, said in an interview with Ukraine.ru.
He noted that the former president of the republic, Almazbek Atambayev, was «considered» as a pro-Russian leader because he led the country to the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) and «squeezed» the Americans out of the transit center at Manas. But in fact he was a «pro-Atambayev» leader, his interests just coincided with those of Russia.
«There are no pro-Russian, pro-American or pro-Chinese politicians in Kyrgyzstan. There are 250 parties in the republic — this is an absolute record in the post-Soviet space, and, perhaps, in the world. Based on material grounds, people change their ideological assessments like gloves,» said Andrei Grozin.
According to him, any politician should reckon with the mass sentiments in Kyrgyzstan, and the mass sentiments are associated with the understanding that if the relationship with Russia is severed, the republic will have nothing to protect itself from being absorbed by China.