President of Kyrgyzstan was "Obama’s fan, but disappointed with him"

«I was a big fan of Obama’s, but I have been shocked by the actions of the U.S. government and its State Department,» the Kyrgyz President Almazbek Atambayev told TIME in interview during his working visit to New York.

«In 2014 the late Uzbek President Islam Karimov said «there will probably be war in the region.» The U.S. then gave Uzbekistan 328 military personnel carriers at no cost four months after his statement. Investments and assistance from the U.S. doesn’t come to democratic Kyrgyzstan, but Uzbekistan got 328 MPCs, each costing over half a million dollars,» the head of state gave an example.

«After that happened, Secretary of State John Kerry visited us, and I asked him how they could do this while talking loudly about democracy. I have been President for six years, and I have always seen such attitude from the U.S. — the government, that is, not the people,» the president told.

Real assistance to Kyrgyzstan to build a democratic country, a fully-developed democracy would have been a great example for the Muslim world, for the whole Islamic world. And it would have been much cheaper.

Almazbek Atambayev

«The U.S. doesn’t need democracy in the world. That deeply disappointed me when I realized it. I was disappointed with Obama. And the current U.S. president is saying that he will only be dealing with U.S. issues,» the head of state stressed.