Atambayev: Countries in region don’t approve our path of parliamentary democracy

President of Kyrgyzstan Almazbek Atambayev gave an interview to TIME magazine columnist, political scientist and president of the Eurasia Group research center Ian Bremmer, during his working visit to New York (USA).

As the magazine noted, the head of Kyrgyzstan with unusual candor told about the challenges facing his country — about his disappointment with U.S. leadership and its approach to the fight against ISIS, his friendship with Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and how Kyrgyzstan has thrived as a Muslim majority democracy.

Answering the question of political scientist whether great relations of Kyrgyzstan with Russia influence the relations with China and whether he sees growing tensions between relations of the country with Russia and China, Almazbek Atambayev said that he did not see big problems with it.

«All the neighboring countries, including the big ones, have gotten used to the fact that Kyrgyzstan has its own foreign policy and its own opinions. Most importantly, all our neighbors—including Russia and China—now understand that we don’t have any bad intentions towards them; we only want to be good neighbors,» president stated.

Of course, some countries in the region don’t approve of our chosen path of parliamentary democracy. They don’t like it that the President of Kyrgyzstan has decided to be in office for only a single term. Some leaders think we are giving a bad example for their people.

Almazbek Atambayev